The First Generation
by QuirkQuartz
Summary: The First Generation of Quirked individuals had it rough. Yuuei is built as a school for the Quriked, but is in reality, just a way for the Quirkless to keep the Quirked in one place, contained. Faced with a world that despises and hates them, Midoriya Izuku and Ashido Mina and others join the very first generation of Heroes to change this worlds hatred of Quirks. MinaDeku,Kacchako
1. Quirked and Quirkless

A Quirk. A superpower that varied heavily from user to user. Only recently had these abnormal marvels of science begun to surface, and only a few years ago had the first recorded case been documented and announced. Some claimed it was the very next stage in human evolution. Some claimed that it was the work of God, bestowing gifts onto those who were worthy. Others said that it was down to pure chance, while others claimed it to be the results of a government funded research plan.

To others, they were something to be feared. And feared they certainly were.

Ashido Mina had to keep herself covered up whenever she went out in public, despite the fact she utterly hated having to do such a thing. Long sleeves and pants, boots, gloves and a hoodie that she could use to cover up her naturally pink hair. A face mask, like the sick wore, to cover up what of her pink skin she could, and sunglasses to prevent anyone from seeing her darkened eyeballs. Her horns were the real problem, so she wore the closest thing possible along with her hoodie to a turban to hide them, although it didn't do anything to make her look like the average inconspicuous teenage citizen walking through Tokyo, but it at least hid her more obvious traits. Sure as hell didn't help that it was the middle of summer, and this get up was enough to make her feel like a baked potato wrapped in tin foil, but again, it hid her up well enough.

Not a single inch of her skin could be shown. Not to anyone. It was too dangerous.

There was always a huge number of questions that anyone had when they first learned about their Quirks. Aside from the obvious ones, like 'What is my Quirk?', 'What can I do with my Quirk?' or 'How did this happen to me?'. Everyone asked these questions, and it was all because nobody had any idea what the hell a Quirk really was.

Another common question was why.

Why did this happen to me? That was a question Mina found herself asking nearly every day of her life since she'd gotten this damn thing.

She checked around the back alleyway that she had been travelling through, and came to an intersection where it met the main road. She looked right, and then left, and thanked God when she saw that it wasn't a busy day today. A few people here and there, but this wasn't something that she wouldn't be able to handle. In reality, even if the streets were packed, she could still travel through. She didn't even necessarily need all of the clothing she had one to hide her Quirk. It wasn't at the stage where people would just get away with attacking her on the streets… But she preferred it this way, at least for now. Better to be safe than sorry.

Why did people start to develop these things? These 'Quirks' as they had come to be known? At first, the birth of a luminescent baby was an isolated incident, but it marked the start of something that the rest of the world would never forget. Something the world couldn't forget. Never would be able to forget. People began to develop their own Quirks not long afterwards. Some people were in their late nineties when they learned about their powers, others were just children. It didn't matter what the age was, people just randomly seemed to develop these inhuman abilities.

It was never really something people discovered. As soon as a Quirk was activated – The user just knew. It was like a switch, and the person knew instantly how to activate their abilities. Some ranged from incredible things to Pyrokinesis, to mundane things, like changing eye colour.

No one knew why. It was just… Happening.

And not everyone liked that fact.

Most people hated these new developed powers. Quirks only affected a very small percentage of people, making them a minority in an otherwise Quirkless world. Those who had Quirks were easily spotted. They stood out against the normalcy of society. Like a sore thumb.

Mina was fifteen years old when the world around her was beginning to change in more ways than anyone could even honestly keep a track of. The time when everything that she knew about Japan, and the world, this ever turning world of those who had Quirks, and those who didn't, would change.

Wrapped up in all of these clothes was uncomfortable to say the least, but Yuuei opened in just a few weeks, so she figured that she would be better off finding a place to stay until the newly announced boarding school for those who had these mysterious Quirks would open its doors. Yuuei had been announced in its construction two years ago, and many members of the public who had Quirks, teenagers specifically, were given a notification of mandatory attention. It wasn't a negotiable thing. Promises of safety and security, and the further assurances of finding ways to help people learn to control their powers was pretty much all that people needed to accept this as a necessity. But Mina hadn't ever been to Tokyo before all of this, and it wasn't like she had a whole other lot of options of places to go.

Since her family had disowned her, she hadn't exactly had the most comfortable life. That was a little under a year ago, and now was this brand new school, opening up for people, specifically those who had Quirks like hers, offering free housing, and teaching their pupils a way to learn how to control the oddities that were their powers? It would have been insane for her not to want to go there.

The thing was… Mina knew that everyone there would be like her, each of them having a Quirk. So she knew that none of them even really needed help learning how to safely use their powers.

A Quirk was like a muscle, and activating it was about as tricky as making a fist. Those who had them didn't even really have to think when they activated them. It was as natural as breathing, and to some, even easier. Like a switch that had just been flipped, activating for the very first time when a person's Quirk activated.

Mina's Quirk had activated a little under a year ago, around the same time her family threw her out and never wanted to see her again – She amused herself by thinking of all the satirical things she should have said to them before she left - It hadn't been pretty. Growing these horns out of nowhere, skin turning pink, as well as her curly hair. Her eyes turning into something dark and void… Surprisingly, it hadn't been too painful.

Although to Mina – She thought she looked pretty kickass. It was just a shame that the rest of the world probably wouldn't ever be able to see her like that. She sighed as she made her way underneath one of the many bridges that covered this concrete jungle of a city, highways, train tracks, and walk paths always towering above her, held up by sturdy support beams and metal framing.

The world wasn't all bad. Not everyone hated Quirks. Enough so that walking down a dense public street wasn't a death sentence… But bad enough that people would pretty much just get out of her way the second they laid eyes on her. Mina had learned to just accept it, that it wasn't going to change any time soon. That this wasn't going to change unless Quirks became far more prominent than they were now.

"Bit of a heavy fuckin' get up for the middle of June, don't'cha think, kid?"

That statement alone was all it took for Mina to hazard a guess as to what the plan was that this man had in mind. He'd waited until she'd passed him, leaning against a wall on the underpass, smoking a cigarette, which he threw aside after she had walked past him. The second his lips had separated, two other men joined him either side, none of them a day over twenty-three. One of them was shorter than the others by about two inches, while another one, the tallest of the group of three, was a foreigner, possibly from the United States, or the UK. The one who had spoken had a thick Tokyo accent, and his dialect was akin to that of a thug. He had sounded civil enough, but Mina had a feeling that she knew where this was all going to go all too well.

And yet, Mina's legs now refused to move.

"Seriously, kid, it's what, thirty friggin' degrees out and you're in a hoodie, jeans all done up – The hell even – The hell even is that – Around your forehead? A burqa? You the religious type or somethin'?" The same man asked, obviously not buying into anything that he himself was saying. He awaited a reply that never came. "Silent type? That's cool, I can respect that. Just seems strange that someone would go out into the streets in this God forsaken heat in this God forsaken city with anything like that. You seem like you'd be cooking in there."

Once more, Mina didn't respond. She knew that she should just keep walking, that this sort of person wasn't going to follow her onto the main street… But something stopped her from doing so. Something that just felt… Alien to her, almost, yet so familiar. What was it?...

Fear.

That's what it was. Fear.

"I mean, you can't blame a guy for his curiosi – "

"Oh Katsu, just shut up." The shortest one, revealing himself to be of a far younger age than his appearance let on, edging off at around eighteen or so, snapped, before walking towards Mina at a brisk pace, who still had her back turned. Upon hearing the harsh remark, she finally turned her head, careful not to give anything away that might reveal her altered appearance.

"Hey, Ryu, calm it, we don't know if she's – "

"If we're gonna do this, let's just get it the hell on already." The teenager revealed as Ryu – but that information went completely over Mina's head as she stood, transfixed and almost mesmerized, unable to move out of her damn shaking legs' refusal to move – responded in an almost calm like manner, before he reached Mina's position.

Despite the fact that she knew it was coming, Mina never saw the fist fly from this young man's side and straight into her left cheekbone with speed and vicious force. The first few seconds, she didn't even know she was being punched until the pain set in, and even then, the shock had completely numbed her to that.

That one strike had been all it had taken to totally rip apart her disguise. Kinetic energy from the punch slammed right into her face, and knocked her sunglasses straight off. In the same motion as the punch, the assailant's fist opened into a claw like grip on her turban, and tore it straight off with enough force that Mina felt like her horns were going to tear right out of her skull. That was the one thing that she responded to with a vocal cry of discomfort, but by then the damage had been swiftly done. All that was left was for her hood to fall down and reveal Ashido Mina to the world.

Pink skin, pink hair, black sclera, and horns. No one on the planet would ever be able to mistake her for being one of the minority of individuals to possess a Quirk. It was so obvious, the only thing that would have been more so was a set of fireworks, or a signal flare, or an explosion of some kind ripping apart the concrete around her.

Her attacker had left a bruise on her left cheek, which with her skin pigments being what they were, turned a dark shade of magenta, though that was the least of her problems – She was barely acknowledging that – And she knew it perfectly well. Her attacker looked pleased with himself, while his two buddies looked disgusted at what they had just uncovered walking through the streets of Tokyo. Whatever civil charade they had been playing, weather they had known that it hadn't been working even slightly on her or not, was completely out the window now.

Now it was just glares of anger. Disgust, and something else there too…

"Crap…" Mina muttered to herself, throwing her hood back over her head, though she knew it wasn't going to do her the slightest bit of good. They'd already seen her, and they weren't going to believe that it was just the shade of the highway above them playing tricks on their eyes. They'd seen it up close. They knew what she was.

"…Know something kid?" The original man spoke, a notable deeper tone in his voice. Far deeper. There was no cheery act anymore. Just as Mina's true colours had been revealed, so had his. "This area used to be a pretty nice place to live. Live here myself for most of my life. None of… _This_."

The word ' _This'_ was emphasised by the man opening his arms wide open, in reference to the trash and garbage that surrounded them, that Mina hadn't even taken into consideration. Looking at the place now, it was a total wreck. Cracks in the pavement and in the roads, graffiti everywhere, and unauthorized artwork at that. Garbage bins were present, yet were seldom even used, some even kicked over for no real reason except for random acts of violence, and set fire to, so the people who resided here could have a stable source of heat if they lacked housing.

Holes in the walls were also there, some looking like they were from bullets, fired by the law enforcement in order to stop something that refused to co-operate.

Whatever had refused to cooperate… It had left a huge crater in the centre of the road, and in several walls. Mina hadn't noticed a single one, being too busy to just get through here without getting spotted.

There wasn't any sort of doubt – Whatever had done this damage to this once peaceful neighbourhood had been in possession of a Quirk. And these guys had been caught in the middle of it.

Perhaps before that incident, these people wouldn't have had any sort of issues with Mina. Maybe they were Quirked supporters… But that time was long past, dead and buried, along with the calm that this place – Their home – Had held. These guys were sharp, no doubt… And they had a grudge. A heavy one at that. A grudge against those who had powers.

The foreigner was the one to speak up next, revealing himself to actually be from Ireland. "Then you freaks started showing up, going crazy. Police came in and fought… Took you abominations into a cell where you damn well belong."

"I'm… Sorry to hear that." Mina honestly responded, understanding how hard it was to lose a home, a place that you could call your own. She understood their anger, their frustration….

"See, that ain't good enough." The group leader said, his hands in his pockets now. "See, we gotta protect our own neighbourhood now, since the damn police ain't gonna do jack shit as it turns out. Against you Quirked freaks, can't say I blame them… But again, that's not good enough."

What Mina saw next sent a shiver down her spine.

A knife. Jagged edged, almost like a sawblade. It was a steak knife, primarily used to cut up cooked meat… But it was a deadly weapon, in of its own right. Suddenly, both the others had knifes too – One butchers, one serrated. Three different knifes for three different types of

"We have a rule here. Pretty simple one, but maybe you didn't get the memo, kid, so here it goes – No fucking freaks allowed."

Three against one… Mina didn't like those numbers, not at all. She knew enough self-defence to help her out when she was dealing with one guy, but against three, she wasn't so sure. Of course, she possessed a Quirk, something none of these lunatics had, and there was no way that they would be able to guess what her power was either. That gave her an advantage, even if they all did come at her at once. Running away would be a good option too, into the open. The police weren't going to just let her get carved up in broad daylight – People who had Quirks were still people, even if the rest of the world didn't like it.

Even then though… Her legs still refused to move! She swore at herself, again and again and again, to just move, for God's sake! But nothing came of it. It was like the signals she was sending to her limbs was getting cut off was soon as it reached her waistline, which just resulted in her trembling like an idiot.

Would her Quirk be enough?... Would she even be able to use the damn thing if she was this terrified of these people? She'd seen it sure, encountered it a few times… But to actually be on the receiving end of this sort of attack… It was horrifying.

"Freaks that come here, they don't leave without a scar to show for it." The Irish one added on, with a smirk on his face, showing some sort of sick pleasure in the fear he was inserting into the young teenage girl. The primal desires of man, the cruelty, all surfacing at the sight of someone weak before him.

"Hrmm…" The teenage one tilted his head and looked at Mina, like he was inspecting her, trying to figure out what was wrong with her, like she was damaged goods. He twirled his knife with impressive speed and skill in his right hand, before suddenly bringing it to a halt, and pointing it at the girl's forehead. "Hey, Katsu – How much d'ya reckon someone would pay for this freaks horns?"

The young girl froze.

"That – That's enough!"

Before Mina was even able to process what was going on, she found herself being shielded, for want of a better word, by a teenager, just a bit taller than she was, with black, curly hair, that rivalled only her own in its messy unkemptness. Going by the voice, and how broad his shoulders were, Mina knew that this person was a boy about his age. Spread out randomly across his hair, were green highlights, dyed with permanent product. The frame he had, though of limited exposure, thanks to him wearing a t-shirt and shorts to help him combat this scorching day, seemed solid, far above most people their age.

"Who the – "The pink girl stammered, stepping back, finally able to move her own body out of surprise. Part of her was expecting this guy to turn around and sucker punch her in the jaw, until she noticed one detail.

Like her, he was shaking.

The sudden arrival of another person on the scene, someone none of the group had been prepared for or had expected, seemed to throw them all for a loop. For the briefest moment, they lowered their weapons, in shock of the young boy who had rushed to her, but their surprise didn't last too long.

"Get out of the way kid."

"You don't realize that fucking alien's got a Quirk? She'll eat you as soon as you turn to let your guard down!"

"I - I said to l-leave her alone!" The boy yelled, stuttering on his own words. If he was trying to look tough, he was doing a very poor job of it. In fact, he was achieving the exact opposite effect. It looked more like he was standing up to the schoolyard bullied, even though he was completely petrified of them. "She – She hasn't done anything wrong to you! I – I'm telling you to leave her alone!"

Did this boy have a Quirk of his own? Mina had to wonder, since she was struggling to understand why – Why on earth this person, who she didn't even know, this person who she had never seen in her life – Hell, still hadn't seen his face – Was going out of his way to protect her, to defend her? Was this a case of those with powers having to stand together against the ones that didn't? There didn't seem to be any other reason for this sort of behaviour.

Or was this a strings attached rescue?...

Whatever this was… Mina couldn't help but stare at the back of this boy, who was still trembling in his boots, yet still stood, arms outreached, and blocking the way towards the pink girl. He was scared, as much as Mina was to the point that she couldn't move… And yet, here he was, whoever this guy was.

"Some fucking altruist…" The leader of the group muttered as he slapped his free hand against his forehead in frustration. "Fuckin' kids, can't do a damn thing right – Ryu, get this dumb prick out of the way so we can chase this pink little bitch out of here."

A sinister smile took over the youngest member's face, with his teeth showing as he took steps forwards, brandishing his knife tightly in his right hand. There wasn't any other way to put it – He looked psychotic. Like a madman out for blood, vengeance of some kind. Maybe in his deranged mind, he was getting it, against Quirks themselves.

"Please, this doesn't have anything to do with you – You don't need to be here!" Mina yelled at the black haired boy, trying to get him to pay attention to her, no matter what it took.

"I-If that's true, then p-please, just run away from here!"

"You don't get it – I have a freaking Quirk! I can handle them if it comes to that!"

"Using Quirks… It's against the law, you know that!"

"Not in self-defence! And even then - Better than getting us carved up! Who the hell even are you anyway?!" Who even was this guy, Mina thought to herself. Did he have some sort of death wish? Why was he here? She didn't want him getting hurt because of her! "I didn't ask you to help! Why are you even here?!"

For the first time, the boy managed to take his eyes away from the group, and back at Mina. He had eyes as green as his hair, and a fair few freckles sprinkled along his cheeks. His skin tone was natural, and he looked almost harmless – He didn't look remarkable in any way. He looked completely normal.

"I – I have a friend just like you!" He told her, his incredibly shaky smile not faltering in any way, even though his fear was as obvious as hers was. "I- I couldn't – My body just moved on its own!"

"Last chance, kid." The eighteen year old thug said, revealing in that short space of time, he was right next to the two of them, and was now threatening the boy. "Move to the side, and I won't hurt you."

"N-No!" The boy stood firmly where he was, refusing to budge. "I-I won't let you hurt her!"

"Suit yourself." The young thug said, with a smirk on his face, raising a fist to smack Mina's defending to the side like a ragdoll.

"Hey!"

Another new voice, one not heard as of yet, broke into the conversation from behind the group that had ambushed Mina. In that moment, everyone turned to face the source, revealing a blond, spiky haired boy, with a plastic bag in his hands. Seeing the situation, he let it drop onto the ground, the thudding of half full tin cans of food echoing in the silence.

"K-Kacchan!" The green hair dyed boy called out towards the other boy, who was shooting him a glare.

"Deku, for fucks sake, you keep being this altruistic to every prick with some sort of problem, and I'm not gonna be there to bail your ass the fuck out." The blond boy revealed himself to be incredibly foul mouthed, and extraordinarily loud and aggressive, openly swearing and yelling at the boy who was shielding Mina.

"You're with this boy then?" The Irish member of the group questioned the boy, Kacchan, as Mina heard the boy called Deku call him.

Kacchan took a few steps forward with what could only be described as a confident grin smeared all over his face. He didn't even seem worried in the slightest, not at all concerned, and that brisk calm walk seemed to make Deku relax some too. "Deku's with me, so I'll be taking him. Plus his friend, whoever the fuck that is."

The group looked between one another, before looking back at Kacchan. It was clear they didn't think much of him, and they were too fuelled up on testosterone and adrenaline to let some delinquent punk tell them what to do.

"Kid, unless you wanna end up on the chopping block with these two, get the fuck away from us." The leader said quite aggressively.

"You wanna know a couple good things about having a Quirk?"

Suddenly, the attention was entirely on this scruffily dressed teenager with a grin on his face large enough to sink a cruise ship. It was clear to anyone thinking clearly – So Deku and Mina – That he was intentionally riling up the attackers, edging them on. He had chosen his words very carefully, so as to get the response he wanted from them.

"Another freak?" The Irish member asked, gritting his teeth, and clutching onto his sharp weapon tighter.

Mina kept her eyes on the new arrival to the fray, more out of curiosity than anything else.

"Good thing about having a Quirk is that I don't need a weapon to beat down every single one of you fuckers into the motherfucking ground before I can count up every goddamn time Deku's fucked up a rescue like this." Another grin. "You dumbasses wouldn't even be able to touch me."

If his intention had been to provoke, he had gotten it in spades. The Irish member of the group lunged for him, having decided that he'd had enough of listening to this freak with a Quirk run his mouth for a damn second longer.

It was all Kacchan needed to take him out.

"Second good thing – We're still completely allowed to use them in self-defence!"

The blond boy suddenly ducked down, avoiding the lunge altogether, before slamming his right palm into the attackers stomach. Mina couldn't tell exactly from her angle, but she saw a huge flash, and what looked like an explosion erupt from the boys now smouldering hands, and knocking the Irish member a good twenty meters way, and into a wall that left a sickening crack along with it. It had happened so fast, so quickly, that Mina hadn't even been able to follow it.

The boy was allowing himself to breath raggedly. His palms now looked like they were burning, smoke rising from the aftermath of whatever it was that he had unleashed upon his attacker. Mina had to blink to make sure that she wasn't hallucinating in any way thanks to the heat her clothes were giving her. She'd never seen a Quirk like that before. Nothing so…

Openly ruthless.

"You fuckers wanna test me – Who the fucks next?!" A series of explosions suddenly covered Kacchan's hands, his Quirk showing itself off in the biggest way possible – With a huge bang. Flashes of bright, near blinding lights shot into the retinas of everyone who looked directly at the yelled teenager, and smoke, dark grey in its colouration, rose from the boy's location. "Get the hell out of here before I light all of you pricks the hell on fire!"

The warning didn't need a second heeding, and before Mina had even registered it, they were gone, one and all. They'd just taken off, leaving their friend behind in the process. He was completely knocked out, and unable to make any sort of movements whatsoever. It was possible that he had suffered a concussion, but Mina didn't really care if he had or not, considering what they had tried to do to her. The now retreating attackers yelled something about _"Freaks getting theirs someday"_ But Mina couldn't give two damns about that.

Attention refocused to the two teenage males who had just defended her without as much as a drop of a hat. The black haired one, Deku, sighed and relaxed a bit, even chucking to himself in relief that the situation had been defused. He looked over to the unconscious attacker, showing a mixture of anger, and pity in his eyes, like he wasn't sure what to make of them. Like he simultaneously sympathized with them and their losses, and understood their rage, yet hated them for what they had just done.

The blond haired one on the other hand looked, frankly, pissed the hell off about the whole situation. Mina had already gathered that he was short tempered and foul mouthed, but when he grabbed Deku by his hair and began to yell right in his face, she saw he took it to a whole new level.

"The fuck was that about?!"

To his credit, Deku seemed to take it fairly well, showing timidness, yet nothing that would indicate downright fear. Almost like he was used to this sort of treatment from this guy. "Kacchan… Sorry man, I just saw this girl here and I – "

"Deku you useless fuck – The fuck were you gonna do, you dumbass?!" with what looked almost like a shove, the blonde boy ripped his hands away from the other teenagers hair with a set of gritted teeth showing. Now that he was closer, Mina could see the red irises that he seemed to hold. Like most other Quirk holders, he had a small alteration to his body due to the highly prone to mutation genes that he had coursing throughout his veins.

"I – I couldn't just… Leave her like that… You know what people can be like…" In the heat of the moment, Mina had the idea of someone strong, who didn't seem to have any concept of danger, defending her honour and being for no reason other than the right thing to do being to help her.

She didn't get anything but that last one. This boy, Deku, was the same age as her, and despite the muscles that he seemed to have, was as timid as they came. Stuttering turning out not to be a heat of the moment, adrenaline pumped slip up, but rather, just something that he couldn't help himself from doing. He didn't look tough either. Looking at his face, with his large, green eyes and freckles, he didn't look like he'd hurt an insect even if he stepped on it. Totally normal.

And yet, he was the one who had leaped in to defend her.

The boy with the explosive Quirk seemed to just sigh as he released him with a whack to the top of his friend's head, before taking a proper look at Mina. He didn't seem surprised by the way she appeared, and didn't even seem to focus particularly on any part of her, her skin, horns, eyes, or anything, scanning her over like she would anyone she met. Like he was trying to decide if she was worth the risks that had been involved to save her. "You're an odd one." Was all he had to say.

Frankly, after the last five minutes she'd just endured, Mina was a bit beyond just playing nice. With sass, she sarcastically responded. "You don't say."

"F-Forgive Kacchan, he's kind of… Uh… Unreserved?" The green hair-dyed boy said, stepping in quickly. "A-Are you alright? They didn't hurt you at all?"

"No, nothing like that… You didn't have to do that though."

"I-It was the right thing to do… I… I can't stand seeing people just doing that sort of thing to someone who hasn't done a thing to deserve it… I saw them, how they were threatening you… I – I had to do something…" The boy justified his actions rapidly, going over a few details of his thinking process before he eventually reached out and offered a hand for the pink girl to shake. "My name… It's Midoriya Izuku, but a lot of people call me Deku." He tilted his head back towards his companion. "His name is Bakugou Katsuki, but I just call him Kacchan."

"I've known this twerp since kindergarten. Couldn't get rid of him even if I wanted to."

The offer wasn't unappreciated, but Mina was surprised by the readiness of it. She stood there, staring at the hand for a few seconds, before accepting the gesture with her own firm handshake, surprisingly so for someone of her stature. Pink met white, and white didn't pull away of flinch for a second. "Ashido Mina… I um… thanks, I guess, for, y'know, helping…." The young girl paused for a second, before jumping right into her question. "Uh, neither of you know when Yuuei is gonna be starting up applications for admission, do ya?"

"Yuuei?... So, you're attending too?"

* * *

' _Watch it, Deku, I'm gonna get you!'_

' _Tan – Tankaka, watch out!'_

' _Think fast!'_

' _Ha-Ha!'_

' _H-Hey! No fair Kacchan!'_

Izuku remembered that day very well. It wasn't a day he could ever forget, even though it had happened now nearly three and a half years ago, while he was half sleep deprived. It had been the middle of November and he'd been sleeping for a couple of hours, sleeping in a fun filled slumber of warmth that his blankets provided. His mother was fast asleep as well, after staying up late on some sort of work thing that she had brought home. His dreams a reflection of the day's fun.

Totally normal for a 2AM morning in the Midoriya household. The night was cold, so dictated the winter weather, reaching levels of below freezing for the first time in the first time the young boy could remember. The twelve year old child had just returned from a long day of school and spending time with his friends, building snowmen and getting involved in the mother of all snowball fights. It had been Izuku leading one team, and Katsuki leading the other. Katsuki had utterly crushed Izuku's team, but had made sure his friends were warm as soon as he could, by bringing them towels to dry off with and warm drinks to heat up – Before he declared that he was charging them for them, though he didn't follow up, and everyone shared a laugh. Anyone could say what they liked about Izuku's best friend – He was good at heart. Like the anti-Hero in a comic book or manga.

Even in spite of the dangers the world was producing on a regular basis.

Recently, news of these oddities, these Quirks had been brought to the public attention. They had been around for about five years prior to now, but had been spreading more and more frequently throughout the planet. That winter, it had been practically all the news had talked about. Quirks this, Quirks that. They were being talked about like they were something incredibly dangerous to the human race, and the anti-Quirk sentiment could even be felt in middle schools.

Fitting with his nature, Izuku didn't really have any particular opinion when it came to Quirks. He was interested of course, but he didn't understand the anti-Quirk sentiment that people seemed to have. They seemed sort of cool, but only a few people had them, so was it really that big a deal?

No one Izuku had ever met in his life had a Quirk. Since they only came around into the public eye when he was seven years old, none of his classmates showed any signs of having developed any superpowers, and he himself was also Quirkless. To anyone who looked at his life from an outside perspective, it was a totally normal life of the average Japanese middle schoolers – Enjoying the rare snowfall that it offered to the fullest before falling asleep in a warm bed, oblivious to the changes that the world was experiencing.

But it all changed on that night. , Morning, November the 14th, in 2014.

The black haired boy's phone suddenly burst into life with Katsuki's ridiculously loud, rock-metal ringtone shooting Izuku straight out of his slumber and into reality again. For a brief moment, he thought that Japan was being invaded by demon monsters, but he managed to calm himself down and catch the scream that had been making its way up his throat when he realized it was just his friend's favourite loud song.

Groggy eyed, Izuku reached for the device, where he saw the picture he had assigned for whenever Katsuki called him. It was a photo the two of them had taken during a joint family day out at a zoo that let them interact with the animals in their enclosures. They were both about nine when the image had been taken, and Izuku hadn't bothered to change it. They were with a group of aquatic animals that could be interacted with via topless tanks. The image showed them playing with a peaceful and non-aggressive species of stingray.

"Kacchan?..." Sleepy Izuku muttered to himself, pressing the answer button, and sitting upright in his bed. "Is this a prank call, Kacchan?... I'm sleepy…"

" _De-Deku…"_

Green eyes shot wide open, and within a second, Izuku had shot straight out of bed and thrown on a jacket as quickly as he could. Right now, his mother hearing him, the amount of trouble that he was certainly going to get in for this, or how stupid he'd look running through freezing cold Tokyo in nothing but a hoodie and his pyjama bottoms weren't even things he was considering, and, if he had been, he would have totally ignored them anyway.

His best friend was a lot of things. Proud was one of them. Aggressive, loud, and almost thug like were a bunch of others, even at the young age of twelve, but he wasn't a bad person by any means whatsoever. Maybe troubled in a way, or stuck up, but he wasn't bad.

But he had called Izuku. And he had been crying. He never, ever cried. Ever.

Something was happening. And it was serious.

"Kacchan, what's going on?!" Izuku hissed over his phone, trying not to wake his mother or father as he quickly ran through his apartment to the front door, and slipped on his boots so quickly he hadn't actually bothered to undo the laces before he'd shoved his feet into them. "Are you alright?!"

" _De-Deku… I-I need he-help…"_

Not hesitating for a second, Izuku unlocked the front door, shut it behind him, and ran like hell as quickly as he could towards his friend's house, ignoring the shin-high snow, and the black ice that made every slip dangerous. He didn't slow down for a second. Bitter cold winds hit and stung his eyes and nose as he legged it for his destination, but he didn't care.

"I'm coming, Kacchan! What's happened?!"

" _I-I'm at S-Setagaya park… S-Something happened…"_

"You – You're what?! You're on the other side of the city!" Izuku skidded to a halt and stared at his phone in shock. What on earth was he doing over there?! "What – How do you expect me to get over there?!"

" _I-I'm sorry… I'm sorry…. I-I didn't know who else to c-call… P-Please…"_

It hadn't taken much to convince Izuku outside that. He roughly knew the way, and he could figure it out from the street signs and his memories. He had been to that park before. It had a playground that he and Katsuki went to a few times with their parents as kids. He knew he had to take the first right at the crossroads in the opposite direction, and follow that path until he reached a junction… He'd figure it out from there.

He took off as fast as his already frozen legs would carry him.

Because he hadn't bothered to put on any actual winter clothing, he was running around and facing the bitter freezing cold that was Tokyo's first winter snowfall in thin pyjamas. The bottom half of them were utterly soaked within a few moments, just above zero Celsius water slapping against his clothing and his shins. His boots became damp quickly too, water leaking into those and making him waterlogged from the heel down, making his feet quickly become numb and render the young black haired boy unable to feel a damn thing below his knees, but he kept on running.

Snow lightly fell from the sky as the night went on, some of which hit Izuku in the face, others landing in his hair. Every time the boy exhaled, he saw his condensed breath impact with the cold winter air and merge with the earth's atmosphere once again. It would have been a beautiful sight, a truly beautiful one to behold, if Izuku wasn't in a frantic rush to get to the other side of the entire city!

There were a thousand thoughts racing through Izuku's head as he made his way to Setagaya Park. What had happened to Katsuki that he'd felt the need to run away to the other side of the city, and what had caused him to be so desperate for help that he'd called Izuku for help this late at night, while he was still crying? He hated showing any sort of weakness whatsoever, to anyone. A typical tough guy. He wouldn't be caught dead sniffling at school.

But he had been while talking to Izuku on the phone. And that worried him to no end.

Katsuki had been his best friend for years, since they'd met in kindergarten. He'd saved the curly haired boy from a bunch of older bullies who had been picking on Izuku on his first few days there.

Izuku was the kind of person who would suffer in silence. He wouldn't speak up for himself, since he was way too shy to do that. He didn't have the strength to stand up for himself. He was timid, and barley had any social skills whatsoever. The exact opposite of Katsuki. He had seen the way that his playmates had treated Izuku, and had promptly dispatched of them within a few seconds. Izuku had soon learned that he was just as short tempered and violent as they had been, maybe more…

But he was a good guy, no matter what anyone else said! Katsuki had always been there for him, and he'd always been there for his best friend! Where Izuku lacked confidence and assertiveness, Katsuki provided, and when Katsuki looked like he was about to flunk out, Izuku had showed him the way with his incredible intelligence. They complimented one another, despite being nothing alike whatsoever.

So what sort of friend would Izuku be if he wasn't there for Katsuki now?!

These thoughts fuelling his running, he'd run even faster, causing him to slip and fall flat on his face a few times, though when that happened, he picked himself back up immediately, and kept running.

It took him half an hour to get to his friend's location, and by the time he'd gotten there, he was beyond exhausted, but he was finally there. When he said Setagaya Park was on the other side of Tokyo, this wasn't technically accurate. Rather, it was on the opposite side of the area they generally lived, which was how he'd gotten there so quickly.

But when he got there… He didn't even recognize the place.

Scuff and burn marks littered the place, like impact sites and wreckage from all manner of things was spewed all over the landscape. Bits of the playground that he and Katsuki had played in were scattered all over the place, some half buried by fresh snow. Metal from the monkey bars they had climbed on were blasted in all different directions. Snow was unturned in certain places, leaving puddles in the way. Smoke rose into the cold air.

It looked like a battleground. Not a playground. Like a bomb had gone off here. Like it had just exploded overnight.

Worry gripped Izuku rapidly when he saw the state of the place. "Kacchan?!" He yelled out, eager to find his friend, wherever he was. "Kacchan, are you still here?! Kacchan?!" He made his way deeper into the smouldering site, fear gripping his heart.

What had happened here? Had this happened to Katsuki before he'd called, or after? Was this why he'd called Izuku?... Had he known that this was going to happen?... Was he calling because he needed help? Because he was scared?

Had he been… Too late?

"Kacchan?!" He yelled out again, desperate now. "Kacchan, where are you?!"

"Dek-Deku?... Over… Over here…"

"Kacchan!" His voice! He was still sniffling, but it was his voice! Izuku turned his head instantly to where the sound of his friend's voice had come from –

But… That… That couldn't be right though… He was… His voice was coming from….

The centre of the smoke and flame?

"Ka-Kacchan?! Oh God…" Izuku stammered and stumbled for a brief moment before he used his short as an improvised smoke mask. His eyes narrowed and watered when the smoke hit his eyes, so he used his hand to try and disperse some of the dark grey vapour as best he could. "Kacchan, are you okay?!"

Upon seeing his friend's messy, spiky, ash blond hair, Izuku's face erupted in a huge grin.

And then it fell when he saw the smoke was actually rising from his friend's hands.

He didn't even need to see the look of abject horror on his friends face. He didn't even need to hear it. He knew, just by looking at it.

It was a Quirk.

Katsuki had developed a Quirk.

* * *

"…Kacchan called me since he knew that I didn't have any issues with people who had Quirks." Izuku explained as he poured another drink for Mina, and slid the glass over to her. "So I helped him learn how to control and hide it… Until the Toe Tests were introduced."

His eye twitching, Katsuki was having to try very hard not to blast Izuku out the nearest window with as much force as a frag grenade. A few sparks flew from his right palm and he held it up in the air so the two other teenagers would be able to see the detonations. "Deku, say I was crying, one more fuckin' time, see what happens."

"E-Easy, K-Kacchan! S-Sorry!"

It was one of the first times in quite a while that Mina could remember herself laughing in amusement at the situation and the stories hat Quirks had brought about. The story Izuku had just told her had been tragic, sure, but the clear embarrassment and way it riled up Katsuki was something that she wasn't quite able to get over. These two couldn't be more different, yet they acted as the best of friends. The two were clearly close, like Mina had been to very brother before she had gotten thrown out.

This was just nice.

"So, Bakugou-kun, your Quirk lets you create explosions?" She asked, taking a small sip of lemonade through her straw.

"Yeah." Katsuki nodded, letting out another, this time a smaller one, in his palm to demonstrate the point. "Only from my palms though."

"His Quirk mutated his palm's sweat glands. They secrete something sort of similar to Nitroglycerin, which he can detonate." Izuku explained, much to his friend's annoyance.

"I know how my own fuckin' Quirk works, Deku!"

"Must be nice…" Mina smiled weakly. "To have a Quirk that you can easily hide…" As she said so, she looked her the skin of her palm, impossible for her to ever hide her nature as an individual who had such a power inside her. Excluding his abnormally red eyes, Katsuki appeared to be a regular human in all regards, and even his eyes would pass for human, since amber coloured eyes were rare, but not inhuman.

They were able to discuss these things so openly and calmly since Izuku had brought Mina back to the apartment building he lived in with his mother, who had readily welcomed Mina after seeing her and immediately knowing what it was her son was doing. She was incredibly polite, and brought the group lemonade shortly thereafter. These discussions of Quirks, and the things that had happened because of them to each of them, was now completely acceptable. They didn't need to fear being heard.

Izuku sighed himself, and looked over at Katsuki with a look that emulated pity, one Katsuki didn't like in the slightest, but Izuku couldn't help but give anyway. "Like I said… We were able to hide it until the Toe Tests were introduced in schools.

"Toe Tests?"

"You're shitting me, you don't know what those are?!" Katsuki seemed to be genuinely ticked off now, like Mina had just slapped him in the face.

Mina shook her head. She knew they existed, but she didn't know what they really were. Since it was painfully obvious to anyone who looked at her for point ten of a second that she had a Quirk, she actually having the test done to her would have been an absolute waste of time and resources.

"Well, people who have Quirks lack an extra joint in their small toes." Izuku explained quickly. "We don't really need them, and if someone does have that join, it breaks constantly, but because it's so useless we don't even really feel it. People who have Quirks don't have that joint. So it's really just a matter of having an X-Ray scan done, and then they'll find out if you have a Quirk or not…"

Suddenly, Mina realized why Katsuki was so angry with her ignorance. The mere mention of what those tests were was something that Katsuki had an absolute abhorrent for. He didn't look at anyone else as Izuku explained, instead shifting his attention to the floor.

"We managed to keep his Quirk hidden for three years… Until about six months ago." Izuku admitted with a sigh. "When the tests came to our school, there wasn't much we could do about them. Kacchan got his Quirk found out… and his parents – "

"Do _not_ call those fuckers that."

Swallowing, but nodding in his agreement, Izuku continued. "His… 'Guardians', threw him out after they heard the news. That's why he lives here. I've known him all my life, so I couldn't just abandon him."

"You got thrown out too?..." Mina looked towards a clearly angry, yet remorseful Katsuki.

"Those bastards ain't even worth the breath it takes to talk about them." The ash blond boy spat through gritted teeth. He glared towards Mina, which sent a shiver down her spine. "What about you, Raccoon eyes?"

"Raccoon - ?!"

"We don't know a damn thing about you. Deku's such an altruist, he didn't think, but we don't even have the first idea what you're about. What's your Quirk, anyway?"

To be fair to him, he had a point, Mina lamented. Though she had a passionate hatred for the nickname he had just given her, he had been honest with her about his own Quirk, and Izuku had been kind enough to allow her into his home. She at least owed them a demonstration of what she was capable of. After all, between people who had these superpowers, showing one another was a sign of trust. They had expressed their trust towards her, so she wanted to return the favour.

"Good point. One sec." Quickly, she chugged down her glass of lemonade in one large gulp, and placed the empty glass on the table, just in front of her. Concentrating hard, so that the liquid she would develop wasn't one that would destroy its container, Mina activated her Quirk. A semi-transparent, pale lime liquid ran from her pink skin and, with careful aim, landed inside the glass container that she had set up. She couldn't help but beam at her demonstration, which showed her full set of teeth as she smiled. "There we go. That's my Quirk – Acid."

"A-Acid?"

"Yes sir!" Mina chuckled. "My body lets me generate any kind of Acid that I want. Hydrofluoric, corrosive, citric, whatever. Let's me mess around with the viscosity and solubility too." Seeing the black haired boy reach out like he was about to touch the container, she warned him, "Yeah, I wouldn't touch it if I were you. It won't burn or do any like, permanent damage, but that'll still sting like crazy for a while."

"N-Now you tell me…"

"Yeah, we might wanna rinse it out before someone accidentally drinks that."

"Won't it mess with the pipework?"

"Nah, that in there is the weakest stuff I got. It ain't gonna mess with metals. Might wanna use warm water to rinse it though."

"I'll get it." Katsuki offered, grabbing the glass container and making his way to the bathroom, to safely dispose of the contents of the glass. He quickly made his way out of the room and towards the bathroom, before either one of the other two had a chance to offer to do it themselves.

This left Izuku and Mina in the room together, alone. There were a lot of things Mina wanted to ask Izuku. Why he had stepped in to help her when he knew exactly squat about her. Why he had brought her to his home despite her being essentially a stranger to him. Why he seemed to be doing all of this with no ulterior motive. He didn't seem like the type of person to do these things in order to accumulate favours from other people. Nor did he even seem to be that particularly complicated. She noticed a blush that was on his face – Was he embarrassed about being in a room alone with a girl or something?

He had an awkward streak, that much could be figured out just by interacting with him for a few minutes. He was smart, there couldn't be any question about that. The level of intelligence he showed when it came to Quirks seemed impressive, and he knew what he was talking about. When he was talking about that kind of thing, he was pretty confident and ready to explain, clearly spoken, but when it came to a regular conversation, he seemed to stutter and trip over his own words, but he seemed like a nice guy.

And Mina was indebted to him.

"Hey, Midoriya-Kun." Mina addressed in an unusually formal manner, catching the attention of the boy with green highlights.

"Y-Yes?"

"I… I never really expressed my gratitude for you saving me back there. Sorry I was kind of, y'know… A jerk back there. I just didn't want anyone getting hurt."

"O-Oh! Y-You don't have to worry about that!"

"…No one's ever done something like that for me… Well, not since I developed my Quirk. You and Bakugou-kun are the first people to ever do that. It just… I appreciate it. Really, I do. And I really appreciate you letting me take cover here for a few hours. Thank you so very much." She bowed her head as a sign or true honesty and gratitude. Mina wasn't the type of person to show this level of politeness, even when she didn't have her Quirk, but her true gratefulness override her usually informal attitudes.

"You – You're welcome to stay here until Y-Yuuei opens. We – We have plenty of room. The – The dorm rooms at Yuuei don't open for another couple of weeks, so you can stay here I-if you don't have anywhere else to go…"

"Are – Are you serious?" Mina's eyes widened at the offer, and she struggled to find words for a moment. "You would do that?"

He nodded, with a soft smile on his face. "We have to stick together, don't we? We need to help each other when the world is like this… Me and Kacchan do this sort of thing all the time when someone needs help."

"What, you guys some sort of Vigilante's who go around helping people with Quirks? That how you found me? Doing laps around Tokyo as the dynamic duo of Midoriya and Bakugou?"

"A-Actually, we were just out getting groceries for my mom."

They both shared a laugh at that, smiling kindly at once another. It reminded Mina of the times before, when she was still able to interact with people normally, without them wondering what it was that she would do if they pissed her off in any way. Of course, she had no intention of ever hurting anyone unless they attacked her, but everyone around her was afraid of what she'd do, just because of how she appeared… but this was different.

This was someone who saw her appearance, and was able to treat her like a regular human anyway. Someone who saw past the layer of pink skin. This only made her smile even wider and laugh even harder.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble… I think I'd like that." Mina smiled at him, before realizing something. "I just realized, actually, I never asked. What's your Quirk?"

"M-Me?" Izuku pointed towards himself and chuckled lightly. "Oh, I don't have one. I'm Quirkless."

For the briefest of moments, Mina froze.

And then Katsuki walked back into the room, slamming the glass back onto the table again in an almost passive aggressive manner. "So Raccoon eyes here's gonna be staying with us for a while?"

"Until the dorms at Yuuei open."

Katsuki scoffed. "What a fuckin' joke."

"Huh?"

"Yuuei. The whole bullshit pitch they gave. _'A safe haven for those with supernatural abilities where they will learn to control their abnormalities'_. Ton of complete garbage." The Explosion Quirk used mocked.

"I thought you were going to Yuuei as well?" Mina questioned. "Why're you going if you don't want to?"

"I don't get a damn choice in the matter." The red eyed boy snapped. "Sent a letter through the mailbox. Attendance mandatory for anyone under the age of eighteen with a Quirk. Already signed up everyone in Tokyo with a Quirk, whether we like it or not." He growled as he spoke, making clear his hatred towards the not even opened establishment. "Don't eat up the shit they feed up. Why do you even think they're opening a school specifically for people like us who have Quirks? No normal people or anything like that? Heh, 'cause lemme tell you, it sure as fuck ain't for our benefit."

"Kacchan…"

"They're keeping all the people with Quirks in one place so it's easier to keep an eye on us! That why they have the dorms in the fucking first place! So they can figure out how to get rid of us easier!" An enraged Katsuki turned to face Izuku with narrow slits for eyes. "I don't have a damn clue why you're even applying to get in. They ain't gonna let a Quirkless in."

Looking between the two of them, Mina had to question what she was even hearing right now. First thing came first though, she swallowed a lump in her throat before speaking again.

"You – You're trying to attend Yuuei, Midoriya-san?"

Scratching the top of his head, and laughing nervously, Izuku nodded. "Eh heh… Yeah, I am."

Mina gulped.

Katsuki laughed to himself from his seat, bitterly sarcastic and pessimistic as he could possibly manage. "Yeah, they'll let you in with all the other freaks, Deku. A bullet to the head'd be easiest way to get rid of you."

Though his frustration and resignation was apparent, Katsuki didn't stop. He vented his anger and pessimism to the room, and everyone heard him crystal clear. The sad thing was, he was right. Izuku had to sigh, and look between the two Quirked individuals around him. "I don't like to think of it like that…. But you're right, Kacchan. This is just a way for them to round up anyone who has a Quirk and keep tabs on them. That's… That's what the Quirk Registration is for."

That was something Mina remembered well, like a mark of shame. The day she'd been approached by police officers and professionals who studied Quirks, who looked at her like she was some kind of animal that needed to be branded and thrown in a cell, taking samples of her blood, and putting the name of her Quirk on a form that any government officials could read. It almost felt like she was being branded just by that motion in itself. Marked, so that her owners knew what they were working with.

"Having 'Explosion' on the form doesn't mean a whole lot." Katsuki muttered to himself. "All they know is that it has something to do with explosions. They don't know the ins and outs like I do. All Yuuei's made for is a way for those fucks to figure out my Quirk. Put me down if I start causing them problems."

Was this all that Mina had come here to sign up for? To be observed, and watched like she was some sort of… Creature? She had believed, she had well and truly thought to herself that perhaps, Yuuei would be a place where she could belong. Make some friends, and really feel safe…

But that was a lie, and she felt like an idiot for not seeing that.

* * *

If there was one thing – One thing – That Mina had missed more than anything, it was a shower.

Midoriya's mother had been kind enough to save her from the depressing conversation in the room with her son and Bakugou, to which Mina was grateful for, and asked her if she wanted to wash up. There wasn't any doubt in the Acid Quirk users mind that she stunk like holy hell, so she happily accepted it without hesitation.

As it turned out, this was far from the first time that Midoriya and Bakugou had brought back someone else who had a Quirk, so she was quite happy to offer all of these things to the young girl.

Of course, it didn't help for a second that his mother was also Quirkless. That little fact did absolutely nothing to calm Mina's nerves.

Nothing whatsoever.

Still, beggars couldn't be choosers, could they?

She was led to the apartment's bathroom by the slim middle aged woman, who sported green hair dye herself, so Mina knew where Midoriya's choice in colour came from. Upon reaching the room, floor and walls each lines with tiles, she assumed this Bakugou had gone to dispose of the Acid she had generated in order to demonstrate her Quirk. It looked genuine enough, so Mina allowed herself to relax, and lock the door, after thanking Midoriya's mother, of course.

Once she'd taken off all her quite frankly, disgustingly dirty and swear soaked clothes, she just stood there for a second, dazed by her new surroundings, before she turned around and stood underneath the showerhead. Turning the dial to the hottest temperature that it would go, Mina switched on the shower and allowed the water to rush over her skin.

It was, in a single word, utterly glorious.

"Oh, my _Goooooood_." Mina sighed and almost laughed while steaming hot water pelted against her nude body, for the first time in so long she couldn't actually remember. The simple luxury of having enough spare water to douse away the muck and grim that she'd accumulated on her on foot journey from the Chiba Prefecture.

Finding a place that would house a Quirked person wasn't an easy thing to accomplish, no question. And those that did… Were either stupidly expensive to the point of bordering downright extortion, or run down piles of crap. And it hadn't been like she'd had a whole lot of money to work with in the first place.

She let her hands run though her tangled, messy pink hair, feeling the dirt it had accumulated since her last wash leave her body, allowing her to feel so very much better. So much more refreshed that she felt her mood increase by about a thousand times over.

It wasn't long until she actually found herself outright laughing in the sheer happiness of the moment.

That was, until she felt her horns atop her forehead. Then she fell silent when she remembered where she was. Who was around her…

What _she_ was.

The fact that remained, Mina thought to herself as she applied some honest to God shampoo – The kind that was suited for people who had curly hair, conveniently – Was that she was a Quirked human under the same roof as two Quirkless humans.

And that idea truly did terrify her.

From the news, to her own personal experiences with them, Mina was fully aware of what the Quirkless could be like towards the Quirked. She knew it all way too well. Exceptions did exist… but she didn't like the odds that those exceptions existed under. Not one bit.

It wasn't that she was ungrateful to Midoriya and Bakugou. It was, in fact, the opposite. She was, so grateful, she didn't think that she'd be able to convey it in an honest answer… The fact they'd offered her just this short time under their roof was… Amazing in of itself.

But there was one real answer why she honestly feel that staying here would be a bad idea. Why she didn't think that she'd be able to manage more than one night here before she packed her bags, made up an excuse, and see where the road took her. Maybe to Osaka, or Kyoto. Her reason was simple.

She was afraid of Midoriya.

The boy honestly scared her.

She didn't have any doubt that he was a nice enough guy… But he was Quirkless. She didn't know him. She couldn't… She couldn't bring herself to… Even trust him, really. There just wasn't any way that she could bring herself to let her guard down near him. Not after she'd learned this fact about him.

The pink girl rinsed her hair, though it was bittersweet as she thought more about her options, and applied conditioner to her hair next. Apparently Midoriya's mother was a fan of citric scented hair products, since each of them seemed to be themed around the fruit.

The simple reason for her fear of him was because of his Quirkless heritage. The fact that really… She didn't know what he was capable of.

He didn't have that limiter to his actions. Nothing to stop him from lashing out.

Not like her.

Not like Bakugou.

So could she even stay here?...

* * *

"So, what do you think of her?"

"Looking for a freak for a girlfriend, eh Deku?"

The black haired sighed in disappointment, as well as blushing lightly at his friends teasing, though he was more irritated than he was flustered with Katsuki's attempts to humiliate him.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Call yourself a freak. You're not any different to people who are Quirkless, Kacchan."

"Don't know if you recall, Deku – Don't worry, I know it's easy to miss – But I can generate explosions literally from my fucking hands!" As was customary at this point, Katsuki let loose a detonation in his palms, this one large enough to completely destroy the empty can he was holding onto, reducing the aluminium into something burnt and unusable. "I'm not exact Norman fuckin' Normal here."

Allowing himself to sigh once again, Izuku stood upright. "I know you're upset about this whole thing. I am too… It's not fair to you, or anyone else with a Quirk, but you can't beat yourself up for something that isn't your fault."

"Rest of the planet seems to." Katsuki responded, tossing his charred can aside carelessly.

While he didn't like to admit it, Izuku knew that Katsuki was right. No matter what evidence was put forth for Quirks just being the next step in human evolution, there were always going to be some people who claimed that it was the fault of the holder of their power. People who allowed ignorance and fear to overwhelm their common sense. Then there would be people who knew. But they wouldn't care. They'd hate them anyway.

Not the sort of world Izuku wanted to live in.

"You want my thoughts on Raccoon eyes? Here's 'em." The Explosion Quirk user added on, laying back on the bed he was sat upon. "We'd be better off chasing the bitch far, far away from Tokyo before the officials find out she's even here. Save her from attending Yuuei before she ends up like me."

"You know… You – You could try being at least a little positive…"

"The fuck is there to be positive about?! The ash blond haired boy shot upright and snapped. "I'm a freak, being assigned to a freak school for freaks, you're picking up freaks off the street like we're fucking collectables, and to top every – fucking – thing off, my best friend is trying to throw himself into the freak school for freaks to prove some bullshit claim that the rest of the planet is going to shit all over – What in the hell is there to be positive about in there?!"

"K-Kacchan…"

Katsuki looked at Izuku with burning hot eyes and blood, his anger and fury clear to anyone who saw him in that moment – Just Izuku – With teeth gritted and fists clenched as tight as they would go without his nails cutting open his skin. He quickly calmed down after realizing what he'd done, and sat back down, resting his forehead against his hands, now clasped together in a large singular fist. "Shit. Sorry, Deku…"

"…Yuuei offers the equivalent of a High school diploma… I-It's something to be positive about, right?"

"Right…" The middle school drop-out acknowledged, weak as it was.

Deciding it would be best to leave his friend alone to his thoughts, Izuku left to leave the room. "I'll… Let you be alone for a while, okay? I… Know that it must be a lot, being around so many other Quirked people, and that looking like the only thing that you'll have to look forward to for a while… I-I get it, really."

He didn't respond.

"… You're not a freak, Katsuki." Izuku told him before opening the door to exit. "You shouldn't think that about yourself. I haven't thought that you were any different since you developed your Quirk."

"…Guess you're one of the rare ones then, huh?"

Allowing himself to chuckle just a bit, Izuku nodded. "Yeah." He shut the door behind him, letting out a sigh as he walked down one of the few corridors of the apartment.

He understood – Of course he did – The feelings of anger and frustration that built up inside his already volatile friend on a daily basis. They weren't difficult to comprehend. Not in the slightest way were they difficult to understand to anyone who had even a shred of empathy in them. Being surrounded by so many people who were just reminders on how different he was to people like Izuku… It was difficult. It had to be.

And as it stood, Katsuki was going to be attending Yuuei alone. Though he wanted to think otherwise, Izuku knew the chances of getting into the school without a Quirk were slim at the best of times, and downright impossible at the worst. He'd tried, over and over, giving various reasons and sending various applications, each of which would at least grant him an interview at any other school, but with a school like Yuuei…

The chances were they were being burned on arrival when they started to recognize the name.

He was still trying though.

Making his way into the main living area, Izuku was met by his mother, who had just entered the room herself. Underneath her left arm were the old ragged clothes that Mina had worn when she had arrived. Chances were, she was preparing to permanently get rid of the damn things, since they didn't even look fir to be worn even if they were washed.

The two of them had discussed what Izuku did, many times over. How he treated the Quirked people, and constantly brought them back here, if only as a way for help them get back standing upright or get a meal in them before sending them back out – She was proud, so inexplicably proud of her sons compassion, his loyalty and his acceptance of other people. How he was willing to help them, without wanting anything from them in return.

In his mother's eyes, Izuku was a hero. She'd never be able to express how much she loved her son, and how much pride she had for him. It was all of this that made her go along with his efforts to help the Quirked people he found, why she didn't object to it, and why she would always accept what he suggested. She trusted her son, and had absolute faith in him.

"Izuku?" She spoke to him, tilting her head to get a better look at him. "I heard shouting. Is everything okay?"

The young Quirkless boy nodded quickly to assure his emotional mother that nothing had gone wrong. "Yeah. Kacchan's just… A bit stressed I think. He's a bit angry with Ashido-san for coming over here to attend Yuuei… And at me for trying to get in too."

"Did you make any progress?"

"Not yet. I'm going to go see Toshinari-sensei in a couple of days to discuss things. I'll take Ashido-san with me, if she still wants to go there."

"You're not taking Katsuki?"

"It's mostly about me going to attend. I don't think I'll need to take him with me, since he's got to go on a compulsory order. He might be better off staying here. I don't want him blowing someone up before the school term even starts."

His mother nodded at the boys thinking, agreeing that it was the most logical step. She knew his temper just as much as anyone else did, and with the power to cause explosions form his hands… Him getting angry was never a pretty sight. It usually ended in holes or scuff marks along the side of some building or tree somewhere.

"Speaking of that girl, she finished her shower. She's just stood on the balcony outside the front door now… Not sure what she'd doing."

"I'll go check on her." Izuku nodded, making his way past his mother, and up the route she had come from.

Since they lived in a shared apartment building, each one of the floors had an outer railing that overlooked the area that the building was located at. Each floor had a set of steps that took a person to each floors balcony, where they could be able to go up or down if they had business on another floor. With Mina stood out there, anyone who went up these steps would undoubtedly see her.

Izuku worried that someone would see her, or try to do something to hurt her, which was the last thing that he wanted to happen. She'd just gotten out of a traumatizing situation. He didn't want her to have to deal with anything else like that.

When he finally reached the door, he opened it quietly and slowly, so he wouldn't disturb her thoughts, at least for a few moments more, and so it would bide him a little extra time to figure out what the heck he was supposed to say to this girl.

Didn't matter if she was Quirked or not – Izuku still had no idea how to speak with girls.

She was a few meters to the side, watching the traffic flow from the street down below them. Her head was in her hands, watching with a look that the teenage boy could only really describe as being content. At peace, if only for just a little while. The pink girl looked cleaner, and a lot prettier now that she'd been able to clean up. No more much and dirt covered her skin, and showed off the exact tone of light red her skin was – Flamingo, or a light bubble-gum.

Curly hair that rivalled Izuku's drafted gently in the warm evening's wind, catching on her forehead-mounted horns. Naturally pink too, maybe a shade darker than her skin in places, and despite her sclera being black like charcoal, they shimmered just as much as anyone else's. Yellow irises helped cement further her inhuman appearance. She was unique, something that the world would never be able to replicate.

Mina was cute, even under her Quirked circumstances, Izuku considered. She wasn't someone who seemed to be particularly bothered by how she looked, only hiding it because of the way the world would try to flay her skin off if she didn't. When she slowly opened up to Izuku and Katsuki, she seemed energetic and playful. It had brightened up the gloomy mood.

But then she had gone quiet… And Izuku wanted to know why.

He slowly approached her, trying to quickly formulate what it was that he wanted to say, how to open up this conversation. What kinds of things did he need to say to her, what she needed to hear, and what was the honest truth. There wasn't going to be anyone else, anywhere on the planet, who would know the pain of the Quirked more than Mina.

Something he really did want her to know… Something eh truly wanted her to understand, was how he felt about people who had Quirks. Why he did what he did for her, even when he didn't know her. He just… Wanted her to understand.

"I-It's a nice night o-out, I-isn't it?" He finally spoke, stutters present all the while. He had a dry throat, but he kept pushing through it anyway, out of some sort of bravado that he himself didn't fully understand.

Very visually, the Acid Quirk user flinched, shooting up from her position and taking a step back from the railings, looking Izuku straight in the eyes. "M-Midoriya-san!"

"I-I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to startle you."

The Quirked girl looked at him with suspicion. The clothes that she was wearing right now were provided by Izuku's mother. Since Mina was a few inches smaller than Izuku, she had handed him one of his old hoodies that he hadn't gotten around to throwing away yet. It was dark green, the same colour as the highlights that he had in his hair. Instead of a skirt or anything like that, she had some skin tight jeans on that had holes around the knee's, torn by accidents during sports activities in his younger years. All of them were a perfect fit for her, the hoodie leaving enough room for her chest, and the jeans leaving enough room for her hips, arms of which were crossed around her upper torso, like she was trying to shield her body almost.

"I was… Just thinking about today." She muttered. "About those guys who tried to attack me earlier."

"They were kind of uh… I-Intimidating, huh?" Izuku nodded, joining her side by the railing, watching the city below them bustle. He noticed how she took a step away from him, leaving a gap of about half a meter between them. "A-Are … I-Is something wrong?"

Running a finger along the length of her right horn, she looked down onto the street again. "I don't know… That's what I'm trying to figure out."

"H-Huh?"

"People with Quirks are supposed to hate the Quirkless… And the Quirkless are supposed to hate the Quirked… That's what the world is always telling us. That we're supposed to hate each other. And a lot of people… They _do_ – They do hate each other." Mina looked at Izuku with a look that would get her pity, even though she wanted none of such a thing. "I… Don't know if I told you, but I'm from the Chiba Prefecture. It's…. Not far from Tokyo, but… My family still live there."

"You said …Did they throw you out?"

"….Yeah. They did…. My mom and dad just shoved me out the front door first chance they got… My brothers and sisters… They didn't even look at me… Just because of… This damn skin. Like it's my damn fault."

"…I'm really sorry. I can't imagine."

"Then I get here… And I learn Yuuei is a bunch of crap."

"They still give you a high school diploma."

"Great. So I get to fail tests while I'm in prison."

Her joke made both of them laugh, if just a little bit, releasing the tension for just a short while. Resting her chin against the railing and falling to her knees, Mina looked up at Izuku, with a quizzical look.

"Hey, Midoriya-san, mind if I ask you something?"

"S-Sure."

"You said you wanted to go to Yuuei, even though you know the kind of place it is… I just… I don't get it. Why? Why would you want to?..."

Still laughing nervously, but being serious all the while, Izuku responded clearly, and with total conviction. "I… I don't like how people with and without Quirks are constantly fighting… I… I want it to end. I want to attend a school full of people with Quirks, so that people will know that you aren't all just bloodthirsty savages… I – I want… I want peace between Quirked and Quirkless people…" His laughter became more prominent once he had finished. "Eh heh… Kind of idealistic, isn't it?"

For a short time, Mina had been scared of Izuku.

He was a Quirkless person, and from her experience, the Quirkless were some of the most dangerous people there were on this planet. Sure, she could generate enough hydrofluoric Acid to melt them down to their bone marrow, but she would never want to do that. She intentionally controlled and restrained herself so that she would never do that.

So many people who had these powers did the exact same thing that she did, hiding and restraining their superpowers so they wouldn't be able to hurt the people that they cared about that surrounded them at all times. Not just the people they cared about, but the people who surrounded them in general. It didn't make much difference if they knew them. People who had Quirks knew how dangerous they were.

And most of the time, people didn't want to hurt others. So they exercised extreme caution and control, even when in some cases, they were in the right to smack someone in the face, many times they didn't, for fear of hurting someone in the process.

For the Quirked, their powers were a handicap to their everyday lives. One more thing they had to keep in check, as the rest of the world tried to rip away their wheelchair.

But the Quirkless?

They didn't have those limits, and that was what made them terrifying. Just like the people who had assaulted her, and planned to do God knew what to her, they had all been Quirkless, and acted far more aggressive than anyone with a Quirk had ever acted towards Mina. They wanted to cause pain, and had no limitations placed on them. Nothing that they had to hold back, because they wanted to hurt another person.

They _wanted_ to cause pain.

Psychopaths.

Killers.

Bigots.

Murderers.

Well, except for Midoriya now.

A rare, rare example of someone who, despite his own lack of one, held no ill will towards the Quirked whatsoever. Who instead, seemed to love the Quirked as much as he loved the Quirkless. Someone who spoke of peace between the two, as if it were possible.

But he was someone who didn't just speak of it. This was someone who was really trying to do something to achieve that goal. Attending Yuuei, while small now, would speak volumes to the sorts of things the Quirked and Quirkless could do if they liked in harmony with one another.

Attending school would just be one step on the road to acceptance. Proof that people who had and didn't have Quirks could still learn together.

Mina couldn't help but smile again.

"…Midoriya-kun, I think that's an amazing dream." She answered with complete honesty. In truth, Izuku was the first Quirkless person she knew who spoke with such open willingness for co-operation, not because of politics or potential for personal gain, but for the reason that he actually wanted the Quirked to be able to have the same lives as the Quirkless. "I… Didn't think anyone Quirkless would care about Quirked people like you do."

"Eh heh…" Izuku chuckled awkwardly to himself while grinning like an idiot, crimson in the face. "I uh… You're a good person, Ashido-san. I can tell. Th-There's no way someone like you can be bad."

"There's a lot of bad people out there… A lot of bad Quirkless people too… But… You're not one of them either, Midoriya-kun. I thought maybe you were… But… You're not at all."

"You – You've only known me for a day."

"I'm an awesome judge of character."

It caused a warm silence to descend over the two of them, Izuku's cheeks still burning a crimson colour, while Mina's went a light lilac colouration, due to her pigments. She wasn't able to wipe off the huge grin she had on her face either. She'd never been so happy to be so wrong about someone in her entire life.

Midoriya Izuku wanted to close the bridges between the Quirked and the Quirkless.

And Ashido Mina wanted to help that happen.

"Hey…. I-I've got a meeting in a few days… W-With one of the teachers at Yuuei… I-If you still want to, I could introduce you… S-See if he can make a place for you, A-Ashido-san."

"…Yeah. I'd like that."

"C-Come on." Izuku said, now standing upright. "We should head back inside... You'll catch cold if you stay out here for too long."

Bouncing up to her feet, Mina nodded with a huge smile to her face. Before the timid teenage boy could turn around though, Mina reached out and tapped his nose with her index finger lightly. "It's just Mina, by the way." She told him, before making her way back into the apartment floor, practically skipping the way.

The teenager became flustered almost instantly, erupting in a red colour all across his face. The action that's he had taken had caught him completely, totally and utterly off guard. In spite of all of the things that had just happened, Izuku had taken a mental note without really thinking, of one thing in particular.

She had a beautiful smile.

* * *

 **So here's my top secret project that I've been working on the side for you guys ^_^ This one is a bit different, since I thought it up while doing construction work, this story has a clear story planned out, and will end once the end chapter is reached, no dragging the story out. There's a lot of things planned for this one - See if you can notice some of the hints I dropped in because of how different the world is in this story ^_^**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter - This was a mammoth one. Don't expect this story to update weekly like a lot of my other ones. This one will update when it updates. Chapters might be shorter i the future, but I wanted to give you guys a big starting chapter to begin with ^_^**

 **Let** **me know what you thought, and what you'd like to see - The more feedback I get, the more I'll be able to do with this story, and it makes my freaking day when I see new comments or kudos or updates or whatever ^_^ See you next time guys!**


	2. High School Of The Quirked

"Well, here it is, Ashido-san – Yuuei High, the school for the Quirked."

As it stood, Yuuei was a fairly large establishment, with enough space within its walls to house well up to a thousand Quirked individuals, staff and students included. Steel barriers surrounding the grounds kept the public from seeing the attendees, and likewise, those within the walls were left unable to see the rest of the world, at least not from the ground floor. The further up inside the huge building someone was, the more they'd be able to see over the wall. Six floors in total made up the building, two being for students between the ages of fifteen to sixteen, those who would be in the first year of high school. Second year equivalents would have classes on the third and fourth floor, and third years on the fifth and sixth. The roof was also accessible, so students would get the best view from atop the building, seeing the surrounding area for miles around, not that there was a huge amount of stuff to see. While they were located in the city, it was to the outskirts, where not a lot of people lived.

In addition to this, the school had a surprisingly large amount of ground that it could call its own. Roughly a square quarter of a mile for which to do activities in. Of course, housing so many students, they had to have an adequate level of space, and it could be pointed to as a way to avert any claims of discrimination in facilities and adequate living space. It had more than enough space that many other public schools would be dying to get their hands on. Enough space to have a baseball game on, and easily more room to spare.

And even those things aside, the school did look beautiful. It was well kept, maintained, and the builders seemed to have finished on their workload for the day, and were leaving the construction zone in order to gather their lunches for the day. Polished and custom made windows lined the floors, not looking like a single corridor wasn't being filled with the sun's natural lighting. The building was done in a modern design too, and looked as expensive to maintain as well.

Excluding the main building, the dormitory looked to be nearly finished as well, which was situated not far away from the main building. These large buildings were designed to house entire classes, give them all enough room to live in one house together, enough space to have a bedroom each, like a university campus set up, only for high school students with superhuman abilities. The average class was filled up with, by the best guess, twenty students, so that meant there was a whole lot of space in each building for each class of twenty. A building that size could easily house fifty.

Indeed, it did look like an incredible place… But anyone who had seen past the vague disguise that this was a school knew, this was all done to placate the Quirked, so that they wouldn't feel like they were in what was functionally a prison. It would be fair easier to keep an eye on prisoners who didn't feel like they were prisoners. People who were calm and content were less likely to start riots than people who felt oppressed and discriminated against.

Still, admiration of the architecture and the levels of work and space done to the place certainly wasn't hard to comprehend. Izuku himself had always thought that the place looked like somewhere he'd want to be educated at, even if it wasn't being built for Quirked individuals.

"Oh, wow." Was all she could quietly whisper to herself. Mina had never actually seen any of the promotional posters for the building, never seen a design sheet explaining that this was the kind of place to expect. Never seen any sort of visual representation of the place, so she had been left to come up with one in her own imagination. She had imagined a huge, towering building with glass for walls – Totally impractical, she knew. But this was the reality of the situation.

It looked even better. It almost was like a town inside a city, with all the buildings made for varying purposes, and all the land that they had to work with. For a school designed to keep Quirked individuals placated, Mina felt that she could quite easily make herself at home in this sort of place.

"It…. It's pretty impressive to look at, isn't it?" Izuku asked, looking towards the pink skinned girl, whose blackened eyes were wide open with wonder and amazement. It wasn't surprising, given what Mina had explained to him about what she had gone through after her Quirk had manifested.

"I'll say! Look at this place! It makes my old house look like a trash pile!" She grinned to herself and began looking at everything she could see that intrigued her. "Well, more of a trash pile than it is right now, anyway. And this is all of the Yuuei campus? We get all of this to ourselves?"

"The students do, yeah." The curly haired boy explained. "Come on. Toshinari-sensei will be waiting for us in his office." Izuku began to make his way into the premises, leading Mina through the courtyards between them and the main building.

Despite it being a high school for the Quirked, the people who were building said school were Quirkless, and Mina caught their attention like fire in the middle of the ocean. Glares and stares made the young girl incredibly uncomfortable, as she tried, failingly, to ignore them. With luck, they were on the other side of the courtyard, which left plenty of space between her and them. She'd grown weary of large groups of Quirkless people, especially after the incident a few days ago. She found them to be very… Concerning now that she knew what they were capable of from first-hand experience.

Although she would give credit where it was due – Izuku was different to the rest of them. Despite being a Quirkless boy, powerless compared to someone like Mina, he didn't do anything differently. He didn't treat her like she was some kind of freak or that she was any different to her. He was just…. Himself around her, which was something very few people were like when it came to the Quirked. She'd known him only a short time, but already considered him to be a close friend. She was more than happy to be around him.

She followed him through a set of corridors, all illuminated by the bright sun's rays shining through, and reaching the very top floor of the huge building, reaching a ridiculously large door that seemed impractical as it did impressive. How a person even went about crafting and installing that door without it falling and crushing them was an incredible testament in itself. God only knew what kind of monster was on the other side of this humungous frame.

"Yikes… Just uh, just how tall is this dude?" Mina asked Izuku with a slight timid tone to her voice. She visibly froze for a second when Izuku reached out and knocked on the door three times before he called out to whoever the hell was on the other side.

"Toshinari-sensei? I-It's Midoriya, sir!" The Quirkless boy called out in a calm manner, despite his slight stammer, and how rigid his body structure looked, like an action figure that hadn't been used in a long time and needed to be moved around before it would become limber again.

It left Mina just wondering more and more, who was this Toshinari person? What was he like? What Quirk did he had, she wondered in particular. She imagined that someone who was being assigned to a school for the Quirked would have to have a Quirk themselves that was more than capable of damage control, or at keeping people contained to a smaller space. Something that, in the event that the students got riled up and started getting violent, that would be able to suppress them or keep them placated long enough for everyone to calm down.

Or perhaps it was something so intimidating so that the students wouldn't even bother. That could certainly explain the size of the doorframe.

"It's open." A voice came from inside called out, inviting them to enter the room.

With the response confirming that the person he was expecting was inside, and permission granted, Izuku twisted the door handle, and pushed the door open, allowing he and Mina to step through into a room that seemed far smaller than the doorframe would practically need to serve. Inside the room there was little more than a bookshelf, presumably filled with the information, files and the likes that a teacher would logically ned, a desk, and two seats, one behind the desk that the teacher would sit in, and another for students who would come in to talk to said teacher.

And said teacher… Wasn't even a fraction of what Mina had come to expect.

He was a skinny man with a list of exaggerated features, possibly due to the effects of whatever Quirk he was working with. Not looking too impressive whatsoever, Izuku looked like he had more muscles than this dude did. Abnormally long limbs and an elongated neck, he almost looked like something out of a horror movie, his eyes covered by the shadows of his brow, leaving just a glint of what looked to be blue irises to peak through.

Far taller than either Mina or Izuku, this man also sported dishevelled blond hair, so messy and unkemptly kept that it looked like the man had tried to style it with a lawnmower and a garden hoe. The man didn't even look like an impressive Quirkless, never-mind someone who was supposed to be in charge of a large group of Quirked individuals.

Who the hell even was this guy?

"Ah, Midoriya, it's good to see you again." Greeted the man known as Toshinari, who had a certain degree of pleasure to his voice that seemed to even out with an equal level of apprehension. It didn't take him too long to see Mina stood behind Izuku and when she came into plain view as they bother entered the room, the skinny man directly asked. "Who is this?"

"O-Oh, this is Ashido Mina." Izuku quickly introduced the teacher to her. Her Quirked origins were about as difficult to pin down as a piece of paper, instantly recognizable by her skin tone. "She-She was hoping to attend classes here."

Toshinari looked at Mina directly, inspecting her. Mina looked right back at him, blinking a few times. There was something a bit off about this person, making him just slightly intimidating despite his unimpressive attire and outward appearance. He didn't look like the type of person that would ever be a serious threat to anyone… But if he had a Quirk, then appearances meant nothing.

"Interesting. Young lady – Ashido, was it?" Mina nodded at his question. "Tell me, what's your Quirk?"

"It's Acid." She responded. "I can generate most types of Acid from my skin."

"That's a new one." Toshinari chuckled. "I don't think we've had something quite like that yet. Though I suppose we haven't had a lot of Quirks that completely alter the physical appearance." Seeing the face Mina made at that statement, he quickly moved to justify himself. "I didn't mean any offense to you. The truth is, we have quite a lot of Mutant type Quirk users here, people who stand out. We have one pupil who has six arms, and another who has vines for hair, just to give you two examples. You need not fear discrimination by appearance here."

Mina's frown relaxed slightly, and she let out a small sigh. Looking over to Izuku, who was smiling soft reassurances at her, she relaxed herself entirely, allowing her folded arms to now sway by her sides.

"If you're interested in attending classes here, I could call one of my colleagues to come and pick you up, and take you to the registration point, and give you a tour of the facilities. Or I could get a student who is already enrolled to show you around, if you would prefer that." The skinny man offered.

"Yeah, that'd be good, thank you." Mina nodded. She felt that she would be more comfortable around another Quirked student than she would around one of the teachers. Plus, it might help her get a better idea for the kind of school that it was, without any potential bias getting in the way.

Pressing a button on his desk, the middle aged man spoke into a microphone that was built into his desk. "Aizawa, there's a potential student in my office with me. Could you send up Todoroki to show her around please?"

A few seconds passed in utter silence, before a response came from someone who sounded like he'd just been woken up. _"He's heading up now."_

"Todoroki decided to enrol after all?" Izuku questioned with a small smile on his face.

"Indeed he did." Toshinari nodded. "He says that you convinced him to give attending classes here a chance. He's already moved into one of the dorms that's been finished."

The smile on Izuku's face just continued to grow wider after hearing all of this. It didn't go unnoticed by Mina, who took a mental note, wondering what had happened in the past for Izuku to have this kind of reaction. The pink skinned girl looked back towards Toshinari, who seemed to be expressing a small smile of his own, if one could call it that. It was difficult to tell, given the structure of the man's face.

While it was clear that Izuku and Toshinari had a history, it wasn't clear how long that history was, and what it had entailed. Nor was it clear what exactly their relationship was. Clearly it was more than the typical student-teacher, since they seemed closer than that, but Izuku still seemed to hold a certain degree of respect towards the older man, as noted by his constant use of the sensei honorific.

Did the older man know Izuku was Quirkless? Did he share the same ambition as Izuku regarding Quirks in society? Or did they know each other outside of school? Or was something else at play here? Mina didn't know, nor did she have any real predictions as to what their relationship was.

In truth, she still knew only a limited amount about Izuku, despite having lived with him and Katsuki for two days now. He'd mentioned Toshinari, but was somewhat evasive regarding him.

Her thoughts were then cut off by a sudden knock, four rapidly, one after the other, before the person on the other end decided that they didn't feel like waiting for the people on the other side to grant them entrance, and just walked right on in.

What came through the door shocked Mina.

For the most part, the boy, Todoroki if memory served, looked human essentially. Handsome even. He didn't have any clear or obvious Quirks. He had two different hair colours, the right side being snow white, and the left being fire red, split right down the middle of the boys head. Additionally, he also seemed to have the heterochromia mutation, giving his right eye a black, dark hazel colouration, leaving his other eye with a pale green look. All of that was standard, and she didn't think too much of it. It was fairly clear that it was a natural occurrence, since Mina saw no evidence of root growth at the base of his hair, and since his hair was short, those growths would be all the more apparent. Sure it looked a bit odd, but compared to Mina, it was pretty much normal.

Except for a huge burn mark over the boys left eye. An awful deformity that had nothing to do with his Quirk – At least not naturally anyway. And that was what was terrifying about the young man in front of Mina now.

He'd clearly suffered acts of discrimination. And that was a huge shame. He might have been able to pass off his hair as being dyed, but that burn was like a label to him now. People would know he had a Quirk. There wasn't going to be much other explanation as to why he had suffered such a wound. It looked like he'd been branded.

That gave Mina shivers.

"You called for me, sensei?" He asked, glancing around the room. A second later, his eyes caught Izuku's, causing his own to widen slightly. Evidently he hadn't expected to see the black haired teenager again, if not this soon. He showed a small smile at the event. "Midoriya?"

"Todoroki!" Izuku returned to smile tenfold, grinning from cheek to cheek. The bi-hair coloured boy approached the Quirkless teenager with an open hand, which Izuku shook happily. "I just heard that you were staying here! It's good to see you!"

"You made a good argument last time I saw you." Todoroki explained shortly. "I decided to give this place a chance. Can't be worse than the alternatives, though I'm still planning on leaving if things go south."

Seeing a look of confusion on his female friends face, Izuku explained. "Oh, Ashido, this is Todoroki Shouto. I ran into him a few months ago, and he wound up staying with me and Kacchan for a few weeks before he just left in the middle of the night." Looking back at Todoroki, Izuku narrowed his eyes slightly. "You know, a note that elaborated a bit more would have been nice."

"Didn't want you to get your hopes up. I didn't think I'd end up staying here." Todoroki looked at Mina, showing slight interest, but being respectful, not staring at her. "I'm guessing that means that you're the student I'm being asked to show around?"

With a nod, Mina confirmed the taller boy's assumption.

"I see." He looked over to Toshinari for the first time since entering the room, and bowed. Like with Izuku, this boy obviously held a deep respect for the man who was sat in the chair behind the desk, but was far more formal than Izuku was. "I'll show her around immediately, sir."

"Thank you, Todoroki. Make sure you bring her back here once you're finished. I have a few things I need to discuss with Midoriya."

"Understood." The scarred boy stood upright again, looking towards his friend with a look that seemed to convey concern. "Good luck, Midoriya. You're gonna need it here." Turning back to Mina, he gestured for her to follow him as he left the room. "Come with me, I'll show you around the school. We'll start with the dorms."

Looking towards Izuku for a second, Mina glanced between the two, before nodding, and following the student out of the room. She took one final lingering look at Izuku, who was still smiling at her as she left the room. She sent him a weak smile back, before shutting the door.

Immediately, Izuku's smile dropped, and he sighed. He could already feel the slap of disappointment that was about to strike him across the face. He'd been able to tell by the way Toshinari had been holding himself, slightly solemnly when compared to his normal self.

"Midoriya… You know the school isn't going to accept someone who doesn't have a Quirk."

There it was. The news he'd been dreading hearing ever since he'd stepped foot back onto the campus. He'd known. In the back of his mind, he'd already predicted that that would be the answer given to him. The one rejecting him, the one that said that a Quirkless boy wouldn't be able to enter this school for the Quirked.

Could this be classified as positive discrimination, or Quirkless discrimination? He wasn't sure, given the circumstances surrounding it… But either way, this news felt like a glass shard to the heart.

"I've tried my best to pull strings where I could my boy, I really have." Toshinari said, trying to help the younger boy understand. He sounded as remorseful as Izuku was about the revelation. "I've used what connections I have where possible… But… The government is being very strict with that policy. Quirked and Quirkless people just aren't allowed to attend schools together right now."

"So… What do we do now?" Izuku sighed. He already knew the answer to this one too. He was prepared for it, and had trained for it… He would have just preferred for it to not have to come down to this.

"Well, recent studies have shown that the gene that causes Quirks is the dominant gene, so eventually, most people will be born with Quirks… but that doesn't help the current situation. We're still looking at well over a century or two of violence against both sides at this rate." The teacher brought his hands together, before he looked at Izuku. "My offer still stands, you know."

"I'm… I'm fine with having a Quirk." The boy with green highlights said. "Really, I am… I just… I really wanted to be someone who could help bridge the gap between the Quirked and the Quirkless."

Toshinari nodded in his understanding regarding Izuku's feelings of the situation. He felt the same way that the young teenager did. Izuku was one of the few Quirkless people who had no negative feelings for the Quirked, and had been helping them out for as long as he could remember.

After witnessing several of these acts, the skinny man had approached him, well over two years ago from now. This was around the same time Yuuei had been announced, and he had been hired to be a teacher at the school once it had been completed. Having such a powerful Quirk, it was in the best interests of the government to keep him under a lock and chain, where they could keep him exactly where they wanted him. He'd revealed all of this to Izuku on the spot after seeing him stand up for a Quirked boy who had two tails and serrated teeth as physical features.

On the spot, Izuku had asked if he thought it was possible for a Quirkless boy to attend such an institution. He had thoroughly impressed the older man that day, and had taken to teaching him what he knew about Quirks, and how he truly believed that peace could be attained between people who had powers and people who didn't, and was surprised to hear Izuku felt the exact same way.

But… The rest of the world didn't share their vision quite yet.

"I understand, Midoriya… Truly, I would have preferred it if you could have attended Yuuei without a Quirk too. It would be a huge step on the way to establishing a connection between both sides." He stood up slowly, and walked towards his protégé, sympathetically resting his hand on the shoulders of the young boy. "The choice is down to you, of course. I can't, and won't force you to attend this school with a Quirk… But I can promise you a place here if you take mine. I'll be able to make arrangements this very moment."

"Kacchan… Todoroki… Tomoura, and Ashido…" Izuku sighed, remembering the people he knew, and the people he had helped along the way to get to this point. Recent or not… The people he had always tried to help left an impact on him, and he cared for all of them, no matter what it was that they felt towards him. Their lives were destined to be filled with hardship that was unfounded, unnecessary… And for Izuku to just turn on his heels and leave them to it… He simply couldn't even entertain the possibility. "…I can't just leave them here. I…"

Just another reason why the boy impressed Toshinari so very much. His endless altruism that he barely even thought about, the acts of kindness and loyalty that he held towards the people that he knew and cared for. The selfless acts that he constantly did without even thinking about them, not wanting some sort of reward. How he was so readily willing to intentionally put himself in danger to help them live better lives…

In a better world, he'd be known as a great Hero.

"You've been training like I told you to." Toshinari noted, walking back behind his desk and reclaiming his seat. He made a hand gesture for Izuku to take the seat opposing his desk. "That's good. Very good. That'll make this a whole lot easier."

"This?" Izuku asked as he took a seat. While he'd known for a long time that Toshinari had a Quirk that could be passed down and that the older man had offered him that ability, it had never really been explained to him what this Quirk even was, or how it could transfer from one person to another. All he really knew about it was that it gave its user extraordinary levels of superhuman strength. Everything else might as well be written in North Korean for all he could understand about it

"The transference." Toshinari said cryptically, almost like he was taking what little enjoyment out of the situation that he could get from Izuku's confusion. "You were smart to keep up with the regime I gave you. Control over the Quirk should come a lot easier to you if you have a body that can contain One For All."

"One For… All?"

"I've told you this before, but Quirks aren't a new thing, my boy." The older man sighed. "They've been around for hundreds of years, but it's only a recently that they've sprouted up like this. I'm not sure why that is, but Quirks have only just become a real thing in society… But underneath all of that, there were maybe a few hundred people who Quirks before this had all begun."

Nodding, Izuku noted his remembrance. He'd been told this before. "This is just the first generation where Quirks are common, right?"

Bringing his hands together and resting his chin on them, Toshinari continued. "Indeed. Whatever happened was enough to make the rest of the world take note of the existence of Quirks. Full body changes like your friend have become common too. The Jersey Devil, the Werewolf, the Vampire, the Enenra, the Kechibi… All of those are examples of people who had Quirks before this era where they have become common – Well, more common."

Fairy tales weren't all false, Izuku had learned. Fantasy creatures in the past could be examples of people who had strange and interesting Quirks. Full body holders could be examples of people who were mistaken for vengeful ghouls, or Gods, depending on the culture. Now that they were commonplace, and a world full of atheism and cynical criticism and observations, those explanations didn't hold up anymore.

"What you need to understand about my Quirk is that I'm not the first person to have this ability. Numerically, I'm the eighth owner of this power." He showed Izuku the palm of his hand, just as skinny as the rest of his body. Within a second, the entire arm began to bulge a massive array of incredible muscles, refined to the point of being hard to the touch, like stone, due to all the reinforced muscle. "One For All. That's the name of my Quirk. It's a power that stockpiles power of all the previous owners into one crystalized network of power. Essentially, it gives you the strength, reflexes, and other physical abilities of all previous users, plus your own, all added together!" As he spoke, he had thrown his own arms wide, as if he were expressing this ability to the entire world around him. "But… There is a catch."

"Okay… What's the catch?"

For the first real time in the conversation, Toshinari flinched and bit his lower lip as he debated giving a clear explanation or staying quiet to assure Izuku that it couldn't be that bad… But that would be a lie. "It might take a while for your body to adapt to the Quirk. Judging by your muscle structure… You should already be able to withstand a lot of the drawbacks… But this Quirk can and almost certainly will affect your body."

"How?"

"Bone breaking." He said it as bluntly as possible. He saw Izuku suddenly shiver for a second, and a small bead of sweat run down his forehead. "It's happened before, with previous users. If you can't fully regulate the power, the pure strength of it is going to break your bones, I guarantee it." He then reassured him, in a friendly tone, "Don't worry. I gave you that fitness regime to help avoid that sort of event as much as possible. The stronger your body is, the easier it's going to be for you to overcome that weakness altogether. I'm sure we can find a way to overcome it too. Not to mention, use of the Quirk is completely voluntary. You don't have to use it if you don't feel like using it. I'm offering you my power because I want you to be able to stay close to your friends."

"And because of your injury…"

"Yes…" Toshinari chuckled, feeling at the wound underneath his shirt. "One For All is wasted on me as of right now. I'd prefer it go to the hands of someone capable."

Izuku blinked twice, before he nodded. He was fully aware of what having a Quirk would mean for him. It meant he'd never be able to live a normal life again, not one free from discrimination. He'd be making himself a minority in a world that utterly hated him and the people he stood by. A Quirk of his own meant that he wouldn't be able to do what he'd always wanted to – To help close the gap between the Quirkless and the Quirked. He could do that so much easier if he remained Quirkless… To the best of his knowledge, he was one of the only people who held no prejudices whatsoever against one side or the other…

But Bakugou, Ashido… Todoroki and Tomura… They were all here. They were all people who were destined to suffer… And without a Quirk, or even being here, he couldn't do anything about helping them. People he cared about. People he considered his friends. He couldn't abandon them. If being here with them, if standing by them meant having to accept this power…

He made his choice quite easily when he thought about it like that.

"I'll accept your Quirk."

* * *

Not that Mina was particularly good when it came to reading people, but Todoroki really was an enigma in a whole other sense of the word. She couldn't even get a slight read when it came to this guy. He didn't smile as he showed her around, keeping a stoic and emotionless expression on his face. He didn't seem interested in speaking with her either, showing her around out of request and only speaking when showing her the area they were in, explaining its function, and the likes.

She'd tried to engage in conversation with him, in her usual lively and sociable manner, but he didn't seem to be interested in the slightest. She would ask the bi-haired boy questions, to which he would quickly and simply answer with just a word or two, very curt and incredibly straightforward, in every single manner of speaking.

He wasn't a hostile person, by any sense. He just didn't seem to be a very talkative sort of person, which Mina didn't quite understand. He seemed to be very happy, even slightly eager, to speak to Midoriya when he'd shown up. Perhaps that had something to do with the history that they shared, one way or the other, but whatever the reason was, he didn't seem particularly interested in speaking with her right now.

She followed him in silence after a short string of botched attempts, until he led her to the building on the far side of the campus that he pointed out as the Student Accommodation row. Each class, he explained, would be made up of about twenty students, some have more, some having less. Those classes would be put into one building each, with enough rooms to accommodate the entire class, plus room for additional students if and when they arrived and were added into the classes. He was currently staying in the dorm for the class marked as '1-A', which was what he showed her.

Inside, the place was actually fairly luxurious, with enough equipment to keep anyone satisfied with the living conditions. Sofas, enough for a large number of people to sit at, and a large television screen, for social gatherings. A shared kitchen with plenty of space, gas cookers and heaters, everything one would need to be able to cook a meal themselves. Living space ample, and more than enough room for more than twenty students. Probably more than enough to thirty, if they really tried to fit them in.

"This place is like a palace…" Mina murmured as she looked around, inspecting the place and taking in the living space around her. Even back home, she'd never had anything one could even call close to this level of size and almost parlour.

"They're designed for twenty people to live in. They've got to be large." Todoroki commented, allowing Mina to explore the room to her hearts content. "The personal rooms are about a fourth of the size. You'll get plenty of space to yourself."

Stopping for a moment, Mina looked at Todoroki, meeting him in the eyes for a moment. Black sclera met heterochromic irises as the two exchanged stares. Todoroki didn't flinch or show any signs of awkwardness. He was sort of the exact opposite of Izuku. The black haired boy would have shot away the second their eyes met, but this stoic boy met the gaze head on, like a bull.

It wasn't something Mina was used to. Eye contact. Someone showing such little emotion around her. It was beginning to freak her out a bit that Todoroki hadn't reached for the nearest weapon and tried to bury it two feet into her skull. "You… You're not taken even a little bit by surprise by me?"

"What am I supposed to be surprised about?"

"The horns? The pink skin? The black eyes – I'm not exactly inconspicuous." Mina sarcastically stated. "I mean – Come on, the last guy who saw me tried to freaking stab me!

"I see someone who has six arms, and another person who has a Frog based Quirk every day. What makes you think I'm surprised by you?" Todoroki asked. "You're going to be surrounded by people who have all the same kinds of deformities and alterations that you have. No one is going to judge you. They're just as easy a target for ridicule as you are."

He did make a lot of sense, but Mina just wasn't used to being around other people so openly. Normally she'd have to wear a mask or something to hide her pink skin and eye colours, wear a hat to hide her horns. Being out in the open like this felt weird, like there were people constantly staring at her. Izuku had stopped her from wearing a black sheet through the city, which she had done beforehand, disguised as a Nun.

This guy seemed more apathetic towards visual Quirks though, like he didn't even acknowledge them. His own was minor and could probably be excused as hair dye. But he was open about it being the result of his Quirk. That did make Mina wonder…

"…You never said what your Quirk even was." She pointed out. She had only met a few Quirk users in her life, excluding her, but from what she knew, they tended to display their powers to one another as a sign of trust and companionship with one another. "That's how this works right? I show you mine, you show me yours type deal?"

"Phrasing could have been better, but I guess so." Todoroki nodded. Remembering his experiences with the two boys he knew before enrolment, he took a guess at where Mina was getting that idea from. "I'm guessing Bakugou kept setting off explosions when you first met him?"

"You know him?"

"Of course. It's a habit he really needs to drop. So he hasn't changed a bit..." That had to be where she got that idea from. The scarred boy stood upright, and held out his hands in front of him, like he was displaying something. They were level with his waist, so Mina could see them clearly. "My Quirk is called Half-Cold-Half-Hot." His right hand suddenly became coated in a layer of ice, forming out of nowhere and running right up his clothing to his elbow with ease. "I can generate Ice with my right hand side…" As he spoke, his right palm suddenly erupted into flames. "…And fire with my left. I'm a rare example of a Hybrid Quirk user."

It was certainly a Quirk Mina hadn't been expecting, though it did explain his hair colouration. It was an interesting Quirk, one Mina had never even heard of before. It was almost like he had two Quirks in one body. A word he had used was one that surprised her.

"A Hybrid?"

"Both my parents have the gene that causes a Quirk, but they're still dormant. It's unlikely they'll ever develop a Quirk if they haven't already, but I was born with what would be a combination of the two of them. Or what they would have been, anyway." He looked at his hands, still holding their respective elements, and stared at them without much emotion on display. "Far as I know, I'm the only person with a Quirk like this. Split down the centre… Still, the government made a classification specifically for my Quirk, so I guess they must think so."

"Fire and Ice… You must be really strong!"

Closing his left hand, the Hybrid snuffed out the flames he held onto, and looked to the side of the room, like he was contemplating what he was supposed to say to that statement. "I suppose. It doesn't do me much good though."

No Quirk did anyone any good in this world, not while they were still utterly despised and hated by the Quirkless. The more Mina thought about it, the more she felt frustrated by what she was surrounded by. It was an impressive school, there wasn't any question… But it was hard to take comfort in that when she knew that this was all done to keep Quirked individuals sated. That they didn't give the slightest damn about her, or anyone else around the premises.

It was to keep them in line. To keep them happy and stupid enough that they wouldn't notice that this was a prison.

"…You know what this place is, don't you?" Mina asked, lowering her own head to stare at her shoes. The baggy jeans she had worn to hide her skin showed, covering up the white trainers she had borrowed from Izuku slightly from this angle. "You live here… You have to know…"

Todoroki nodded and looked at her. "I'm aware. Midoriya and Bakugou informed me regarding their opinions on this place… And since I live here, I can tell you they're completely right." Rolling up his left arm, he revealed variety of bandaged, cuts and a few dots of red along his forearm. To the untrained eye, they would look like the marks of someone who injured their own body out of masochism, but quickly, Todoroki explained. "Blood samples, skin analysis, tests and scans…. They tell you it's to help find a way to 'cure' Quirks, but it's bullshit, you pick up on that pretty quickly. We're like lab rats here in a sense. Mostly for research."

Shuddering, Mina held onto her own forearm. Was that what she had to expect in the first few weeks of moving into the dorm rooms here?

Holding up his arm so she could see it more clearly, the boy attempted to reassure her. "Don't worry, they'll get it all done in a day, and they do give you some painkillers before they start. This all happened last week, but I think it's pretty obvious they're gonna do that to anyone who attends the school, live-in or not. I think all the students who are coming here know that this is just a way for the Quirkless to keep an eye on us. No one's happy about it… But we don't have a lot of options. At least this place will keep us sheltered and fed. That's enough for a lot of people."

Such treatment made Mina want to cry for her fellow superpowered colleague. He looked like he was angry as hell, but didn't want to show any of it to try and ease her nerves, and with the knowledge that if he did, his own Quirk might go out of control and hurt the people around him.

"It's unfair…" The pink girl sighed. "I just don't get it. At all. We didn't even ask to have Quirks, so why do people treat it like it's our fault?"

"People fear what they don't understand." The Hybrid Quirk used said simply, like he'd heard this answer so many times before. "And fear turns to hate. And then the people on the receiving end start to hate those people, and we end up in a vicious cycle… Though, I respect Midoriya for that reason."

"Huh?"

Finally taking a seat, Todoroki gestured for Mina to take the one opposite him, on the sofa for the living space. She did so, and the two looked at one another again.

"Midoriya rescued you as well, didn't he? That's why you came here with him."

It wasn't a difficult leap to make at all, Mina thought to herself. It made the most logical sense to think that that was the case. In fact, thinking about it, she wasn't sure if she could have thought of another reason why she would be here with him. It was really the only explanation that made any sort of sense.

But once again, certain words stood out to Mina that she used to pry further.

"Rescued me _as well?"_ She asked.

Leaning back further into his comfortable seat, Todoroki nodded. "Since I was born, my hair has been the way it has been. It's completely natural, like I said, and the same thing goes to my eyes. Originally, the doctors said I had a severe case of Poliosis – A skin disease that causes patches of white along the body. It can also cause whiteness in the hair. So, my parents thought that and my heterochromia were just mutations. Natural. Rare, but natural…

My Quirk activated when I was four. I was young when it happened. One of the first people it happened to. My left side just went up in flames. It took me a while to get it under control, but after I found out I could turn it off and on at will, I ran and showed my mother. For some reason, I thought she'd be impressed… I found her boiling some water in the kitchen…" His left hand had made its way above his left eye, like he was trying to use it to clutch the burns. "That's when she did this to me."

A second, far more sinister shiver ran straight down Mina's spine in that moment, freaking her out, and making her eyes widen. "Your… Your mother did that to you?..."

"Father called the police and had her arrested. They took her to a hospital, claiming that she had some mental health issues. But he disowned me at the same time. Beat me down like crazy. Said he wanted me dead before the social services came to take me away. Said my bruises and cuts were from my mother…" Visibly, Todoroki was shaking in hate and anger. "I learned that my Ice powers were a thing then too. I used them to cover up the wounds. Make them sting less."

Just content to listen right now, Mina nodded. She wasn't sure why he was telling her all of this, but she kept quiet for now. She had to admit, she was now curious as to what ordeals this poor guy had had to go through to reach this point.

"At any rate, I got sent to an orphanage for kids who got disowned because of Quirks. And I lived there for… Well, ten years. Turns out, there aren't a lot of people who are willing to adopt kids who have Quirks. There were a few… But I didn't get taken in anywhere. I uh…" Bringing his hands together, Todoroki looked uncomfortable. "I didn't have a good opinion of the Quirkless back then."

"Same here. Not until recently." Mina told him, trying to make him feel a bit better.

"You'll see where this is going then." The boy continued. "I ran away from that place when I was fourteen. Spent about a year just wondering around the place… Until about four months ago. That was when I met Midoriya.

I was being mugged by a couple of guys who really hated Quirked people. At that point I was pretty far gone… I really hated the Quirkless… I really… Really hated them. I used my fire powers, tried to roast them into charcoal. I think I wound up burning down a bakery in the process… And I got stopped by Quirkless Midoriya." Todoroki smiled lightly. "He managed to use a fire extinguisher to stop my flames, and calm me down… But he got burned in doing so. He still has the scar."

"Scar?" Quizzed Mina, not being aware of any sort of scar on Izuku's body. It can't have been in an obvious place if she hadn't seen it.

"Right bicep." The boy pointed to his own bicep with his left hand, showing where on Izuku's body the mark would be located. Far up the upper arm, nearing the shoulder, and at the very front of the muscle. "Anyway, he and Bakugou managed to make it look like the guys who attacked me had burned down the bakery. Bakugou's ideas. He really can't stand bigots. And they knew that I was innocent. They acted like it wasn't the first time they'd done this. Turned out it hadn't been."

Not the first time rescuing a Quirked person, or straight up lying to the police. That last one seemed a bit unlike Izuku, but Mina supposed she would have done the same thing in his position. "And Midoriya didn't hold it against you?"

With a rough chuckled, Todoroki shook his head once. "No. Came back from the hospital that day and told me that it was okay… I couldn't quite get over it myself. Quirkless person stopping me on a rampage, gets burned, and helps hide the fact I'm essentially an arsonist?... I felt terrible." He sighed, heavily. "I felt awful. I still do. I stopped using my fire side for a while… Until he asked me why. Know what he told me?"

Shaking her head, Mina indicated she didn't, and that she wanted to know.

"He told me Half-Cold-Half-Hot was my power, and Todoroki Shouto wasn't Half-Cold-Half-Hot's vessel. That my Quirk was mine, that I didn't belong to my Quirk. That I shouldn't try to repress it… That I should accept my Quirk as a part of who I am." His hands tightened into firsts. "I'm not defined by my Quirk… But it is something that is a part of who I am. Midoriya taught me that." His hands loosened. "How could I hate the Quirkless, when a Quirkless boy my age is the only one who gets what the Quirked have to feel?"

It was something that Mina knew all too well. The fear that you weren't really the one who controlled your own Quirk. That the Quirk was what controlled you, and that you were just the host for a rampaging superpower.

She knew how it felt to be afraid of her own Quirk, to lash out at people without thinking. To hate her own Quirk. To hate herself because of it. To let it define parts of who she had been in the past.

She hadn't been Ashido Mina.

She had just been the Acid Quirk. A Quirk that could dissolve anything that it touched. A Quirk that could secrete any kind of Acid. A Quirk that could burn as much as it could rot away.

That Ashido Mina was just along for the ride… Until she learned to accept that her Quirk wasn't going away. That it was a part of her, and she had to come to grips with what that meant as a person.

And it was also the same when it came to the Quirkless…

Mina had hated them. She had truly despised each and every Quirkless person she had ever met. It had been the same story every single time. They would either try to mug or hurt her, or pretend to be friendly, only to stab her in the back. Those had hurt, every time. People who would rob her, or beat her until they were satisfied. Never had they beaten her to the point of death. None of them had the guts to really end her… She had grown to prefer just being beaten for having a Quirk. That at least didn't have the sting of betrayal with it. She knew where she stood with thugs who would love to see her blood spill. That wasn't complicated.

She had grown to distrust and hate all the Quirkless she met…

Until she met Midoriya.

While it was on a personal basis, Mina couldn't bring herself to think badly about the black haired boy. He was someone who she was supposed to hate… But he was the walking personification of care and acceptance. He just didn't care that they were Quirked, and treated them like normal, not like they were people who were going to kill him. He was friendly with them, and he told jokes and mocked them as they mocked him in rare events of banter. He was kind and so sweet that Mina didn't know if she'd ever met someone who was like this, even before her Quirk activated.

She and Todoroki had shared many experiences, it turned out. She understood everything that he had gone through, burns none withstanding. The pain and hate that he'd felt, that he'd turned into his own hate to fuel the flames – In his case, literally - And continue down the path of rage. A path that led to nothing…

Until they'd been rescued by someone they were supposed to hate.

That day, Mina was prepared to use her Acid to kill those three. She would have done if it had come to it… But Midoriya…

He had rescued her from that.

"He's… Midoriya is a good person, isn't he?" She said, not really thinking about it until she said it aloud. When she did, she blushed very faintly, her skin pigments causing her to go a shade of very light lilac as opposed to her natural pink skin.

"One of the best." Todoroki agreed, before standing upright. "Come on. I've still got a lot of Yuuei to show you. Toshinari-Sensei will still want to see you before you go."

Jumping to her feet, Mina nodded in her agreement, skipping right behind Todoroki. "Right!"

As the two of them walked, passing by a couple of other students who Todoroki introduced Mina to, and back into the main building to show her the classrooms and the likes, a few thoughts ran through Mina's head. One of them was her curiosity as to how many times Izuku had gone out of his way to hell Quirked people. Another was why Izuku cared so much about the Quirked… One was less a thought, and more a desire.

She wanted to see that burn scar.

Partly because she wanted to confirm Todoroki's story… But also because she wanted to know – How far was Izuku willing to go for the Quirked?

* * *

' _Why the hell did a strand of hair taste sour?!'_

Izuku had to question this very thing as he forced down a strand of disturbingly thick hair that had been given to him by Toshinari – Apparently, the way to transfer a Quirk was via DNA ingestion, which did raise one question – Who and how the hell did this get figured out?

Not that it mattered too much. It was swallowed, and it was done. Apparently it didn't matter that he was a Quirkless individual, he'd still be able to inherit the Quirk. His body, scientifically, wasn't designed to hold a Quirk, evidenced by his remaining joint in his small toe, but that wouldn't matter when it came to One For All. It didn't discriminate.

Wouldn't that be nice for the rest of the world to follow an example of?

"I don't… Feel any different." The boy said, taking a drink of water to wash down that disgusting sour taste. He opened and closed his hands repeatedly, like he was expecting them to glow or something. "It doesn't feel like I just inherited anything."

"It's going to take a few hours for you to digest it." Toshinari explained, returning to his seat. He looked at the Quirkless boy, knowing that this would be the last time he saw him as a member of the dominant type of person on the planet. Next time he saw him, he'd be like him. Quirked. "Now that you have a Quirk… Life isn't going to be easy."

"I know." Izuku nodded, wiping the remnants of the liquid he'd just taken in from his lips. "I know what I'm getting myself into. I've seen it a whole lot."

"Seeing it and being on the receiving end are very different experiences, my boy." Toshinari sighed. "If you ever change your mind about that power, you could return it to me, or find someone else who wants to take it. I won't judge you."

Nodding, Izuku acknowledged the offer, though he had no intention of actually following through with it. He couldn't just run away from his friends after joining them in this place. "Thank you, sir… But I'll try and stick with it."

"That's your choice." The teacher nodded, though he had a small smile on his normally passive lips, which came with his more shrivelled up form. "I must say though… I am exceptionally proud of you."

"H-Huh?"

"Not a lot of people would be so readily willing to accept a Quirk these days, especially not when they know the drawbacks to this kind of power. I think that it's very brave of you, Midoriya. I'm very proud that you came under my wing."

The young boy erupted into a light blush, and scratched his head rapidly as he was showered with compliments. "Th-Thank you…"

The main question now, Toshinari thought to himself, was what the plan was regarding their efforts to close the gap between the Quirked and Quirkless. Midoriya had always been a method of them doing that, using his powerless nature as a means to close the gaps. Lots of rhetoric used to keep Quirked and Quirkless students separated was that the Quirked students would become savage animals and rip apart a Quirkless person. Midoriya would have disproved that. No matter what logic was being used, a Quirkless student leaving a school surrounded by people with powers, bigots wouldn't have a way to spin that. It just wasn't possible.

But now that Midoriya would have a Quirk, that wasn't possible anymore… Perhaps he could use his connections to the police to try and make some kind of statement? Promote some sort of coexistence? There had to be something he could do.

He couldn't leave it all to Midoriya. He was supposed to be the adult here.

"All that's left is for us to figure out how to promote peace… There has to be something we could do." Izuku said quietly. "There has to be something that can be done to help the Quirked people around the world. Even if it's just a small amount."

"You've already done plenty, Midoriya." Toshinari reassured. "You've helped well over twenty Quirked people find their footing again, three, possibly four of which will be attending here, where I can help keep them safe. You've done more than anyone else has - "

"That isn't enough!" The young boy said loudly, causing the man to jump back lightly. "It's… Not enough. I want… I want to help everyone. Twenty or so isn't even noticeable… I need to do more. I can't just stop…"

Altruistic to the very core. Even though all these years had passed, that was one aspect of Midoriya that had never changed. Frankly, it would amaze Toshinari if it ever did change. The boy was too selfless for his own good. Hell, he'd just dove right into a group of people who were hated worldwide just to stay close to his friends. He was a person of action, who genuinely loved to help people.

"I'll find something Midoriya, fear not." The older man said. "There will be something that only we with Quirks will be able to do that will change the hatred of us. We'll find it soon. Until then… Don't short sell yourself. The things you have done… They're important. You've changed people's lives with the way you've done things… Never forget that. Remember what we said when we first agreed to help bring Quirked and Quirkless closer together."

Pausing, Izuku recalled what they had said when they started trying to change the perceptions of Quirks, and the perception the Quirked had of the Quirkless. It wasn't a task that could be done overnight. It would take a long time to be able to create a world in which they could co-exist. So they had agreed on one rule, one saying that would help them remember that, even though it wouldn't seem like they were making progress, they could remind themselves that they were.

"…One person at a time."

* * *

Mina returned to the office about forty minutes later, Todoroki confirming that he had indeed shown her the entire campus. The pink girl seemed a bit more solemn and slightly quieter, but no one noticed since none of them knew her well enough to be able to tell this. She looked at Izuku for a few seconds longer than she should have, before returning to address Toshinari.

"I want to attend this school."

She spoke with conviction that Izuku hadn't heard from her before, such determination that surprised him. Her hands were in tight fists, and her gaze showing a surprising level of confidence in what she was saying, and a level of dedication to what it was that she wanted to do.

And she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

Her declaration surprised a lot of the people in the room that she had so readily and bluntly stated it the way she had. A lot of people came to Yuuei, but after seeing what it was like, and hearing cynical student experiences, it wasn't uncommon for many to back out, try to get out of town while they still could, provided that they didn't have families or had received a letter of compulsory attendance.

"You're certain about this?" The teacher asked her, his eyes narrow.

"Absolutely. I know what I want to do here."

"And what is it you want to do here?"

Suddenly, Mina's glare softened into something warmer, nicer. Something that Izuku noticed, and that made his own cheeks rosy up a tone lightly at how soft her expression now was. It didn't help him to relax when she turned to look at him, a smile on her face.

"…I want to help Quirkless and Quirked people coexist too."

* * *

Both Izuku and Mina left the building with an acceptance form in their hands, with a date for their admission into the school of the Quirked. They began classes on the 5th of July, earlier than most schools, but that was understandable, since they had to move into the dorms first. They moved into them whenever they could before the 1st of the same month. They'd receive a full education like any other school, in a 'Controlled Environment'.

It was assuring, therefore, to hear that the entire staff at the school were all people who had Quirks of their own. The logic being used was that, in the event of an uprising of some sort, a teacher who had a Quirk and knew how to use it would be a better defence than a Quirkless teacher. In addition, students would feel more comfortable around a teacher who was in the same boat as them.

There weren't any Quirkless teachers in the entire school. The only Quirkless people who would be on school grounds were the inspectors that would show up every so often to make sure operations were running smoothly, and some medical staff who would show up from time to time. That aside, it was to be a High School for the Quirked, run by the Quirked.

It had been about an hour and fifteen minutes since Izuku had swallowed that strand of hair that would give him the power that Toshinari-sensei had had, but he still wasn't feeling any different. He'd received some… Certainly odd instructions as to how to activate the Quirk, but he knew what he was working with. He planned to try it out later tonight, when he was in private. He might experience the drawbacks to the Quirk, and he would have to deal with those drawbacks then, but he needed to know what he was working with.

Glancing over at Mina, who was still reading her acceptance form as they walked, Izuku had to let out a small smile. He'd known her for only a short amount of time… But it was good to hear that she had changed her perceptions so quickly, and now wanted to help bring about peace between the two peoples.

Understandably, she didn't feel comfortable staying in the dorm rooms quite yet. Izuku had assured her that she was totally fine to stay with him and Bakugou until they begun to attend classes, which she had taken him up on, thankful and very vocal about her gratitude.

"So… What made you decide to attend the school?" Izuku questioned her, as both of them made their way to the gates. A few passer-by's were there, and shot a few glares their way, but didn't do anything past that.

For a few seconds, Mina looked at the form to the school that she and Izuku had both been given on the spot. It surprised her that the Quirkless boy had managed to even get a place in there, especially with how much Bakugou had said it was a waste of time to try. She wasn't sure if she was impressed with him, or if she was worried about the moron going to a school that had very good reason to hate him, and he had very good reason to hate himself.

"…Guess your attitude has rubbed off on me." She answered with a small smile. "I… It'd be nice if Quirked people like me could live with the Quirkless… With people like you."

A small blush crept onto Izuku's cheeks at the sudden compliment, and he laughed lightly. "Eh heh… I – I don't do anything that impressive…"

"Bull-crap."

Without another word, Mina reached over for the loose fitting jacket that the black haired boy had on, and leaned further in, tugging at the neck hole of his t-shirt, completely forgoing any sort of social restrictions that she was supposed to be constricted by.

""H-Hey, what the heck are you – " Izuku protested vocally, but he was too taken aback and caught off guard to do anything physical about stopping her. Instead that, and his own flustered state, resulted in him only showing her what it was that she wanted to see.

The burn scar on his right bicep.

The initial impact sight of the attack was an ever obvious thing to identify. Darker, more toasted skin, like a bullet hole wound that had healed over. Everything spread out from that area, expanding along the skin of the young boy like a bullet wound. Stretches and marks ran all the way around him, fading out as the went around and towards his equally toned triceps

For his part, the young teenager looked embarrassed, and quickly tore back his clothing. It didn't take him long to figure out what she had done that for, given who had been taking her around the campus. Quickly he pulled it back up so he was presentable, and looked at the pink girl, who was still rubbing her eyes in surprise with what she'd seen.

"…Todoroki still feels bad about this?" He asked, feeling at the marks through his clothing, touching them lightly. He glanced down, as though he were feeling guilt himself, despite him being the one with the scar from the experience. "I thought he'd have gotten over to it by now… Well… I'd really hoped he would have, anyway…"

"Of course he still fucking feels bad, you idiot."

The sudden loud, rude and foul mouthed voice of someone both the teenagers knew made their head snap towards the person in question like a chain had just been released from their heads and force had tugged on them to see their resident Explosion Quirk user walking up to them, baggy jeans, scruffy street clothing and hands in pockets. Frankly, Katsuki looked like a thug in this particular moment, and sounded like one to boot.

"Ka-Kacchan! What are you doing here?!"

"Stargazing. I came to wait for you two, make sure no one tries to mess with you, why do you think?" The boy retorted sarcastically, before observing the forms both of the teenagers had in their hands. He took a double take before looking at Izuku, his eyes hardened and a hint of something far softer there too… Like worry. "They… They let you in?"

"O-Oh? Y-Yeah! I'm gonna be attending Yuuei with you guys! Todoroki's here too! That's – that's pretty cool, isn't it Ka-"

"You fucking idiot." The Explosion Quirk user muttered, his red eyes hidden by his long, spiky hair.

"H-Huh?"

"Bakugou, what's wrong?" Mina asked, feeling her own grip on the form tighten, not liking the atmosphere that she was sensing.

Hands now came out of his pockets, revealing that Bakugou was letting off small sparks from his trembling palms, the shaking indicating anger of some sort. His fingers were curled up, yet rigid in claws, like they would contain the explosions he would let off if he didn't control himself. His teeth were clearly gritted.

"You're seriously throwing away your fucking life to attend this shit hole with me, Racoon eye and Two-Face in there?" He asked slowly. "Are you out of your damn mind, Deku?!" Suddenly, he erupted in a clear display of anger. "The fuck're you gonna do when some prick in there decides that you're not worth shit and turns you into damn mulch?! You don't have a Quirk, you've got no means of defending yourself!"

"Kacchan, I-it's not a big deal, I – "

"How the hell can you say that, you dumbass?!"

The blonde haired boy was causing a commotion around the area, not that he cared. This did surprise Mina. Katsuki had to have known about his plans to attend Yuuei for months, a hell of a lot longer than she had. Had he just never really considered it as a genuine possibility?

"I can't believe this... Jesus Christ, Deku, are you – "

What happened next was a huge blur to Izuku and Mina both, but suddenly, they found themselves surrounded on three separate sides, and behind Katsuki, a white van had pulled up, from it, jumped out three men. One of their wielding a lead pipe, which they firmly fastened around his neck in an instant.

It happened instantly, so much so that Izuku and Mina barely were able to notice it until it was already done.

Brief panic gripped both their hearts as they looked between the three people, two of which were wearing some sort of facial mask that went up to their noses, covering up most of the features that would give away any sort of identity, unlikely as it was that they would be able to, given the size of the population of Tokyo.

That was why it surprised Mina so much that out of everyone, it was these guys again.

"So, the pink stain is still with these little shits, eh?" The man, the only one not wearing a mask, who had the pipe to Katsuki's neck, tugged on it, in a clear effort to cut off his oxygen supply. The ash blonde boy's hands were trying to pry it away with what force he could. Using Explosion in this situation was out of the question, for risk of injuring himself, which would do no good, especially when he was supposed to be targeting the neck region.

Izuku noticed it too, the person who was behind that pipe, with a smug smirk on his face.

One of the assailants that had attacked Mina, the day they had met. Katsu, this one was called… Meaning that the ones around them were the teenager, Ryu, and the one of Irish dependency, whose name neither of them recalled hearings, or remembered if it had been.

This was not good. And the fact they were doing it in a public place, where any number of onlookers could see meant that either they were confident, or stupid enough, to try this.

"Let Kacchan go!" Izuku shouted, feeling his hands curl into tight fists, crumpling his registration form accidentally.

"Nah, I think I'm gonna keep this one with me." Katsu grinned very widely. "This little freak put Berk in the hospital for a few days, and the cops ain't gonna do a damn thing about it, so we gotta do a little... Vigilantism, I suppose you could call it." His voice wasn't wavering anymore, and he was filled with conviction, judging by how his stance was rigid and prepared, like he had drilled this many times.

This was bad. Very bad.

Suddenly, Izuku found himself desperately, desperately trying to activate the new power he had recently inherited. He went through each step, trying his hardest to activate the Quirk…

But it hadn't digested yet. He still didn't have the Quirk merge with his body yet.

"You seriously think you're gonna hold me?" Katsuki laughed. "I generate explosions form my damn hands! I blow up soda cans for fun! I'm gonna enjoy breaking you, you stupid fu –"

"Take a nap." Katsu stated flatly, before tugging on the pipe tightly. It took a few seconds, but Katsuki was robbed of his ability to breathe, knocking him out in a short amount of time. Katsuki had attempted to escape, flailing his hands behind him, trying to grab something that felt like skin, but had gotten nothing before being knocked unconscious.

Growling, Izuku became enraged at this action. Katsuki hadn't done a damn thing! "You son of a – "

"Step back, you freak supporter." The Irish member of the group, Berk, ordered, holding up a knife in his hand. It was clear and sharp, and he was very obviously ready to use it.

Though he felt disgusting for doing so, Izuku obeyed, and took a step backwards. Once he had, Berk threw a piece of crumpled up paper at his feet.

"That's where we're gonna be. No point doing this in public place. You want this freak back, you'll come alone, no cops. We'll see how tough you are without your little pet monster there to help. Pinky can tag along though – I still want a horn from you." Katsu explained with a sadistic grin.

Mina shivered. Izuku nodded, hated fuelling his motion.

"Oh, and one more thing." The bigoted adult added on, before revealing his teeth.

In an instant, his entire arm stretched, extending a full five meters, slamming a fist into Izuku's gut like a hammer to the head. The force, surprise, and energy in it knocked Izuku right off his feet, expelling saliva as the lunge landed in his stomach. He felt like he was going to throw up.

"Gakk!"

' _What the hell?!'_

With another swift motion, the elongated arm moved and slapped Mina off her feet and to the ground with force so strong, the Acid Quirk user hadn't even known it had hit her until she was half way through falling.

As this all happened, the group dragged Katsuki into the van and drove off, leaving two teenagers writhing in pain on the floor.

"What the hell…" Izuku groaned, trying to get to his feet. "He… He's got a Quirk!..."

* * *

 **I have fun thinking up this story ^_^ I'm glad you guys all enjoyed this so much! I've got a few chapters already thought up, and a few things I'm looking forward to doing with this story. I'll aim for at least one update a month, if I can ^_^ You guys really responded well to the story, even if there's just a few of you ^_^**

 **Berk is an Irish name. I picked it at random. Just roll with it.**

 **I like being vague... so I promise you guys, I'm not forgetting things. I'm doing it intentionally ^_^ I'm sure you guys will love what comes up in the next few chapters ^_^**

 **Also, I learned MinaDeku art is on the very slight rise... So I'm a little proud of that. Let's keep this going, eh guys?**

 **Hope you enjoyed!**


	3. From Quirkless to Quirked

" _Quirks? You're telling me they had Quirks?"_

"Yes, yes, they had Quirks, but this is weird, Todoroki!" Izuku yelled into his phone, rushing down the mostly empty streets, bar a few random passers-by, who gave him weird glances at the mention of the superpowers held by the minority. "That's not what's weird though! We ran into them about two days ago, and they were totally Quirkless then!"

He and Mina were moving at the highest speeds they could possibly manage, Mina completely disregarding her tendency to hide her skin and appearance, and focusing more on following the black and green haired boy than she was on the opinions of the people around her.

Quirked people now kidnapping other Quirked people… That in itself wasn't exactly uncommon. Many Quirked people found themselves working as either criminals or mercenaries, since they had such unique abilities. It was hard to stop an assassin when said assassin was immune to bullets, or could stop them flying through the air with ease. Many found themselves being sent down to capture other Quirked individuals, often for the promise of some quick cash, or for personal reasons. Whichever it was, it was abhorrent even disregarding Quirks altogether.

Violence against Quirked people by the Quirkless – Now that was nothing new. That had been something that had been going on since the very first discovery of Quirks. That was the routine, the brutal, unfair and prejudicial routine, but it was how society worked.

This was different though. Those muggers had been Quirkless just a few days ago… But they seemed to have complete control over their Quirks. Or at least, the leader of that particular group seemed to be completely competent at wielding their Quirks, which made the whole thing even stranger.

" _So they developed their Quirks in between those two days? It's not like it's been uncommon for adults to develop Quirks."_ Todoroki answered back down the phone to a boy making his way to the notes meeting point as fast as physically possible. _"It's unlikely, but it's possible, right?"_

"That - That isn't the _point_!" He yelled back down the phone line, with such loud conviction it even made Mina shudder for a brief moment. "The point is that they're working with Quirks – Or at least one of them is – But either way, they don't see to have changed their minds about Quirks! They just seem even angrier with them! They could be lashing out, but I don't think that's the most likely situation – They targeted us specifically!"

Reaching a crossroads in the streets, Izuku stopped for a moment, turning his head right, then left, then right again, searching desperately for a street name sign. Katsuki had been taken to the docks, the note had said when Izuku had recovered enough to read it, so he had an idea for where he was going. Not the Port of Tokyo, which would be far too busy at this time of year. Other lesser known docks around the place would allow for a far easier time of holding someone against their will.

" _Okay, where's the meeting place?"_

"H-Hitosuta dock! It's about three miles from the Port of Tokyo! Small place, a couple of shacks near it! You can find it from the main road!"

" _Alright, got it. Hitosuta. I'll head over there as quick as I can. Don't do anything reckless, Midoriya. We don't know what to expect from these guys_." With that, Todoroki hung up his phone, to make his way over to the location he had been provided with. Izuku would never have asked him to come and aid in their fight, only calling to ask Todoroki to call the police, since going through the official means himself would have taken too long while he was speeding through the city.

"Is…" Mina began, taking the brief opportunity of them stopping for just a moment to reclaim her lost breath. Her back was hunched over, and her arms were keeping the rest of her body upright by using her hands resting on her knees. A few more sharp intakes of breath were needed before she could find that she had enough oxygen in her system to talk. "Is… Is Todoroki gonna call the police for us?..."

With sweat running down his forehead, and his teeth clenched like a vice-grip was crushing into his jaw, Izuku tried to remember the right way to go to get to the port of the most industrialized city on the planet. He had lived in this city his entire life, he knew it back to front, yet in his panic and fear for Katsuki's safety, he had completely forgotten every nook and cranny that the city provided.

He felt nothing inside his body, nothing that indicated that Toshinori-sensei's Quirk had manifested into his body quite yet. It had been maybe an hour since they had been attacked, and roughly a couple of hours since he had been given a Quirk via the method of passing down such a power. Quirks were new, but the idea of passing one down still bewildered Izuku, but he didn't have time to think about that sort of thing.

The only thing that mattered was finding Katsuki.

"Midoriya?" The Acid Quirk user's voice again called out to Izuku, trying to get his attention. A small shake of his shoulder with her left hand also aided in this mission, gathering the attention of the person who had helped her these past few days.

Part of her was eager to aid in reclaiming Katsuki back as a method of repayment for all that Izuku and the Explosion Quirk user had done for her. Their constant support, albeit the support from Katsuki being more equivocal to swearing and insulting, Mina had come to learn that this was just the simple way in which he operated. She'd grown fond of him.

She'd grown fond of Izuku too. The Quirkless boy who rushed in to save the Quirked, without any benefit to himself. Altruism at its finest. How couldn't she come to care for him after he'd displayed such bravery?

And now, with the Quirk she was born with, the same one that had caused her so much misery throughout her life, she wanted to thank the kindness shown to her by rescuing the kidnapped boy. The boy who got kidnapped because of her.

"I – I don't know!" Izuku exclaimed in frustration. "He – He said he was going to go over there, and he didn't mention calling the police!" That was the least of concerns Izuku was having right now. Of course, the note had said not to call the police, but there hadn't been a chance in Hell he'd planned on following that particular assignment. "Think Izuku, think!... Port of Tokyo… Come on!..."

Every second that they wasted was another second of God knew what happening to Katsuki. He wasn't thinking straight – He couldn't think straight! Katsuki was God knew where, and even if they found him, what the hell were they even supposed to do? Negotiate? Fight? Exchange their lives for his?

An image that made Izuku feel sick to his stomach. His own heart threatened to explode in seppuku, and he felt tears welling up in his eyes. He really was just a weakling… Without a Quirk, he hadn't been able to protect his closest friend.

What had he been thinking? How had he ever thought that he'd be able to just… Just live next to people who had these abilities without one of his own… When it mattered… When it really mattered, the Quirkless couldn't do anything in the face of those who had Quirks.

That was why people hated the Quirked. They were helpless against people who actually had these powers. He tried to sense the flow of power from the Quirk he has supposedly been given… but again, felt nothing.

Had it just failed to work, because of his Quirkless birth heritage? Did it never actually exist, just made up to make him feel like maybe, if all else failed, he stood a chance? Or was he just… Incompatible with Quirks? Like they would never actually work with him… When he needed it to just…

He wanted to create a bridge between the Quirkless and the Quirked… But now he was beginning to wonder, if he couldn't save Katsuki now, what the hell was he supposed to do to save all the Quirkless and the Quirked from killing each other?

* * *

When he had awoken, the Explosion Quirk user had found himself in a damp location, dark, in a building run down that can't have been used in the last five years or so. If it had been used, whoever owned the place was an absolute slob of the worst calibre, but for those who wanted to remain hidden, the place was like a goldmine for secrecy. He didn't even need to see the outside of this, what amounted to a rotting wooden shack with a few metal appliances on the inside to know that. It was gloomy, so it was hidden from the sunlight, meaning that possibly, they were in some sort of district, or were overshadowed by multiple large buildings. What little light existed in the area came from a few lanterns, lit only recently, their flames still flickering as cold air seeped through the drafts in the woodwork.

A few groans unwillingly escaped Katsuki's mouth, prompting silhouettes to inspect him, making sure he was still actually alive, for the moment anyway. His vision groggy for a few seconds, before he managed to shake away the blur, Katsuki recognised the one closest to him as the one he had used his Explosion Quirk on just a few days prior. Berk, if he recalled correctly. Upon inspecting him, the Irish man walked away, leaving the section that Katsuki and he were in announcing him to be okay. He sounded disappointed.

Three previously Quirkless adults, in the eyes of the law, now with various Quirks – Or at least, one of them had a Quirk now. The chances of this person having just developed the Quirk since Katsuki had last encountered them were slim at best, but there was no other explanation for it. There were no ways to give someone who was born Quirkless the powers that came with the mutation that was the subject to the human races ire right now. This person had to have just developed their Quirk. There wasn't any other explanation.

That begged the question though, why were they still targeting the Quirked individuals? Perhaps they were just doing so out of some sort of weird habit, and that they didn't know anything else. Perhaps they thought they could sell them off to some shady company that experimented on the Quirked for some money. Perhaps they were holding him hostage for ransom, until they found someone who was willing to pay the fees they would charge for him back. The school for the Quirked would probably have a lot of funding behind it, so that was most likely going to be their primary target.

Or maybe they just wanted something as simple as revenge, the purest motivator for evil actions. Maybe they were just bitter, and wanted to take out their frustrations out on someone.

Katsuki didn't care though. With his narrow eyes, and red pupils glaring at the youngest member of the group, he spoke through an eerie smile and gritted teeth. "How many explosions do you think it'd take me to turn your skull into a thick fucking paste?" Once he had the attention, the youngest member looked at him, with an eyebrow raised. "I'd say three. That's all I'll need to fucking kill you."

Looking back at Katsuki, Ryu didn't show any emotional sort of reaction, other than the shaking of his own head. "Just be quiet. I'm not in the mood to talk to you."

"Where're Deku and Racoon Eyes?"

"Your buddies? They'll be coming along soon enough, Katsu made sure of that."

"If you fucking lay a finger on them – "

"Good luck doing anything about it. You're a little clamped up, aren't you?" Ryu pointed out. In his hands, he had a chain, which he tugged, tightening the clamp around Katsuki's hands.

From their previous encounter, the group had figured out the mechanics of Katsuki's Quirk, or at least hazarded a guess, learning that it only worked in the palms of his hands, due to his mutated sweat glands. In order to prevent him from being able to unleash any more explosions, he had been tied down to a pipe on the far side of the room. From what he could feel, Katsuki had guessed that there was some sort of gloves around his hands. They seemed to be absorbing the sweat that they naturally generated, meaning that his Quirk was limited. Around his hands aside from that, was a large metallic clamp that covered the entirety of his hands, and a large portion of his forearms. Heavy enough that even someone athletic like Katsuki couldn't lift it up far, and durable like steel.

He growled when he realized this himself, angered by the restrictions that had been placed on him and his Quirk, and attempted to unleash a barrage of explosions from within his contaminant restraints, but to no avail whatsoever. Dampeners, designed to withstand explosions far greater than any he could dish out, absorbed the blast and left him helpless.

"That shit's designed to deflect bullets and absorb IED explosions." Ryu explained, leaning back against the wall he was stood by. "You aren't gonna be able to tear it apart with your Quirk."

"You better prepare yourself for when I get this load of crap off my fucking wrists." Threatened the spiky haired boy, struggling, attempting to rip himself from the chains on the wall. Metal in their nature, the same kind used to hoist anchors up from the sea level, he had no chance, especially not without the use of his superpower.

Perhaps if he could unleash his Quirk at full power – Actually no, if he could, he would be able to, without question. Many times Katsuki had obliterated metallic objects with the use of his Quirk, and this would be no different. It was these damn gloves, whatever they were, absorbing his sweat that made unleashing anything powerful impossible.

"Rrrrrrrgh!" Growled the frustrated Katsuki, trying to intimidate the chains to release their grip on him.

"Terrifying."

The Quirked boy's eye twitched. "The hell did we ever do to you Quirkless fuckers?!" Demanded Katsuki, yelling as loud as he possibly could. He couldn't even be bothered to pretend to be concerned about these guys at this point. All he knew was that he wanted to beat these guys bloody, and above all he demanded answers.

"You put our friend in the damn hospital – "

"And I wouldn't have fucking done that if you hadn't been fucking trying to fucking stab my fucking friend you fucking dumb shit fuck-stain!"

"You swear a lot. Got any more insults you feel like hurling?"

"How about ' _Fuck you'_?"

The youngest member of the group just looked at Katsuki, clear hatred brewing in his green eyes. There wasn't a lot of room left in them for any sort of sympathy for the hostage his junior, regardless of age or involvement in what had happened to him. This was the prejudice that was against Quirks. Someone having one was completely guilty of the crimes and actions of another.

Without a word whatsoever, Ryu held his arm up, and pulled back the long, grey sleeve that reached his wrist. Along the entire length of his now exposed arm, ran black scars and veins, haphazardly placed like cracks on concrete. Entire chunks of skin were missing, replaced with a red scaring where his protective layer had previously been. He looked like he'd been burned with rock salt and below forty degree centigrade ice in certain places.

"One of you Quirked scum did this to me." Ryu stated coldly. "This happened when I was frickin' fifteen. Got held up in a hostage takeover with a couple of your scumbags trying to rob a bank for cash. Got this because they decided they needed to use someone as a meat-shield."

"And what the _fuck_ does that have to do with any of us?!"

"Every one of you is dangerous. You're all time bombs. The second that one of you doesn't like something or gets mad, you'll use your Quirks to beat down those of us without to get what you want." The logic being used here was infuriating to Katsuki, and he felt nothing more than a desire to kill Ryu. "I don't exactly feel like waiting to see how many more people are gonna get killed because someone didn't treat you Quirked like Gods."

"Says the scumbag who has a Quirk."

Notably, Ryu didn't deny the accusation, but instead, he knelt down, so he was on Katsuki's level, with an odd smile. "You ever heard that old saying from America? _'What stops a bad guy with a gun?'"_ With no answer, Ryu continued, only this time, his hand gently touched the ground, and instantly, a massive split cut the concrete beneath Katsuki in two, perfectly cutting the ground underneath. "The answer is, _'A good guy with a gun.'_. So, we went out and got our own."

Ryu Tatasazu – Quirk – Crack – Ryu's Quirk allows him to completely shatter any surface that he touches with his bare hands. He can also use it on people, although the damage becomes far lesser. This Quirk will only activate if he wills it to. If he overuses his Quirk, he will eventually start to feel his skin rip apart.

"Last time I checked, you couldn't just go out a buy a Quirk." Katsuki spat, though he wasn't able to deny the fact that this previously Quirkless individual was now working with one of the superpowers hated in the world. It didn't make any sense whatsoever.

"You'd be surprised what's possible. Now, shut up."

* * *

Bakugou was, to any outsider, anyone who didn't really know him, or disrespected him, an absolute scumbag. He chad a foul mouth and would scream at you until you went white in the face out of sheer intimidation. His harsh and adhesive personality could be weapons in themselves. Many people could swear that when he yelled, it felt like a speaker blasting music at the top volume that it could manage. That was how loud he could be.

The fact he also had a Quirk didn't help too much either. In the current age of the extraordinary, someone like Bakugou being let loose, especially when he had such a powerful, all use and overall devastating Quirk literally at his fingertips, it wasn't hard to see why Midorya wanted to keep him out of the public view as much as he could, and why he worried when his friend went into the streets alone. Knowing him, he'd probably cause untold carnage whenever he got ticked off, and he had the power to completely destroy an entire street if he wanted to.

It was undeniable that these were traits that Katsuki embodied. Ridiculous firepower, matched by his overall brutish personality, with a fiery Quirk to match. A thug almost, someone who, even without the age of the extraordinary coming into effect, would have been a punk to the entire world and any authority figures.

Which was what made it incredibly bizarre to the people who knew him that this couldn't possibly be further from the case.

Yes, he was a violent person, with a volatile temper that could be flipped at any moment, but alongside it, he wasn't, by any means, a bad person. In truth, he was a kind person, in his own brusque way. There was softness underneath the armour he had placed upon himself, to protect himself from the harsh realities of the Quirk Discrimination. Much like Midoriya, Bakugou would refuse to stop trying to help a Quirked individual who very clearly needed it, and was more than willing to use his own to protect people, where Midoriya preferred to use non-violent means – Or rather, couldn't. When things became dangerous, Bakugou always threw himself right into the fray to defend his friend and whoever else was at risk, the consequences and punishments to him for using his Quirk in public being damned. The laws were still changing, taking Quirks into consideration, with many wanting harsh rules in place to limit the ease of life for the Quirked.

Bakugou didn't give a crap about any of that. Rules or not, he still had every intention of using his Quirk against people who were prejudice. To those he helped, he might come across as 'Shoot-First-Questions-Later' type of person, but when push came to shove, he'd vehemently defend them to the death.

Todoroki remembered thinking all of this when he first received Midoriya's call, informing him of the already transpired circumstances. Only about ten minutes ago, he had seen Midoriya leaving the school premises with that Ashido girl, and now Bakugou had apparently been kidnapped by anti-Quirked individuals who had Quirks themselves. Of course, Midoriya had been too worried and was probably not thinking straight, since he tried to get Todoroki to call the police, instead of just doing it himself. Perhaps he was too focused on finding the place he was supposed to be going to deal with the police right now. Todoroki had done as had been asked of him, instantly.

But if Midoriya thought that he was just going to sit there twiddling his thumbs and create steam for the next few hours, then he was an idiot.

The bi-hair coloured boy had spent a lot of his time in Tokyo in alleyways and uninhabited areas, avoiding as many people as he could, keeping his hair and eye secret from the rest of the world. If it weren't for his burn, he wouldn't worry so much, but now enough people could put two and two together and figure out that he was Quirked. Not everyone on the planet was prejudiced against the Quirked, of course they weren't. He'd met plenty of people who were kind to him regardless of his powers… It was just way too high a number of scumbags for Todoroki to feel comfortable with.

Considering the circumstances though, Todoroki decided instantly that none of that mattered in the slightest. Weighing up his options, he considered informing one of the staff at the school and asking for their help, but he quickly decided that they would be more trouble than they were worth. The vast majority of teachers were far more concerned about keeping their students heads down, to avoid any negative coverage by a fear-mongering media that could damage the safety of Yuuei's already precarious position. The teachers would probably insist on keeping Todoroki in his dorm room while the police sorted everything else out. That wasn't good enough, Todoroki couldn't just allow himself to stay in one place while this all happened.

His friends needed his help, and he had no intention of just sitting around, waiting for the police to do something about it.

At the very second he hung up his phone, he immediately broke into a sprint out of the room as fast as he could. He had a good idea where this port was, and reckoned that he would be able to make it there if the traffic and bystanders weren't too bad, and he ran like hell to get over there. It shouldn't take him too long, and if he got there before Midoriya did, he might be able to gather some information before they stormed the place.

Normally Todoroki was seen calmly walking down hallways wherever he had to traverse the corridors for whatever reason, rarely every looking like he was in a particular rush to get from Point A to Point B. But right now, he was sprinting.

Of course he'd get noticed for it.

"Todoroki? What's going on? Where're you going?"

The Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk used almost ignored the call to him completely, valuing getting to where Bakugou was supposed to be held as quick as he possibly could and brushing aside anyone who tried to stop him, but for this person, he stopped, and looked behind him.

Maybe she could help. "Uraraka, your Quirk, it lets you float objects, doesn't it?"

He remembered seeing the brunette girls Quirk in action not long ago, during the introduction stages when he met what few other students had already moved into the dorms. Hers stood out quite a lot. Her ability to remove the gravitational pull on objects via physical contact with them was a power that had impressed the Hybrid type, and imagined that she could probably become very strong if she honed her Quirk.

She had better control over hers than Todoroki had his. Unlike him, Uraraka could make sure that she perfectly targeted and precisely picked what she wanted to damage or destroy. Todoroki could only control his ice, but when it came to his fire part of his Quirk, he was basically just throwing it at his targets, as he had no way to control his Quirk after that point.

That wasn't necessarily a disadvantage in this scenario, though. And Uraraka's Quirk could come in handy.

"My Quirk? Yeah, Zero Gravity lets me remove gravity from anything I touch, why?"

"I'm gonna need your help! Midoriya and Bakugou are in trouble! I need your Quirk!"

Hearing those two names, Uraraka visible became concerned, her eyes widening and her hands fidgeting. "Deku and Katsuki are in trouble? What's going on?!"

"I'll explain on the way. Are you in?"

"Yeah!"

* * *

By the time that Izuku and Mina reached the docks where the note had claimed the kidnappers were holding Katsuki, it had been three hours since Izuku had ingested the DNA required for Toshinori-sensei's Quirk to pass onto him, but he still didn't feel even the slightest bit different. He still felt the same as he ever did, and that wasn't good at all, especially not now.

Hitosuta dock had been abandoned for a long time, barely ever in use anymore, and even then, typically speaking it was smugglers, trying to get in illegal goods to the country. Since the development of Quirks, the police had been more focused on keeping the peace, so the docks had been shunted down the priority list. Graffiti discrediting and attacking the establishment of Government and bigoted messages were on virtually every wall, the floor scattered with the used spray-paint cans. Not that the messages were exclusive to towards the Quirked. Many hateful messages towards the current government and foreigners were there too. These features marked the area as a breeding grounds for delinquents who didn't know any better than what they were surrounded by.

The area was empty. Completely, excluding the walls that surrounded the present dock, and the aforementioned trash. Murky waters and garbage littered the place, but there was nothing there that suggested any indication of Human interaction recently.

"I don't get it, where are they?" Mina questioned, looking around the place. She remembered coming through here fleetingly once, under cover of darkness, before she met Izuku, but remembered next to nothing of note even existing here. Excluding the walls that they had walked alongside to get to the gateway, there didn't seem to be anywhere that they could be hiding Katsuki.

The dock wasn't exactly small, but it wasn't a large space either, limited to the space that one could reasonably hide a hostage in the area, at least in the current space. Had they come to the wrong dock? Had Izuku gotten the address wrong? Or were they just being messed with by Katsuki's kidnappers?

"I don't know… Damn it!" His fists curled up into tight fists, and his voice wavered as he yelled. He was as confused as he was terrified for the wellbeing of Katsuki right now, unsure of what it was that he should do to proceed right now.

He knew very little regarding the area, so the fact there was no clear hut or meeting point that would be an indicator as to where the standoff would be held was something that stressed him out thoroughly. Though he tried to calm himself down, and rationally tell himself that they had to be nearby, he found himself struggling to keep himself emotionally balanced and secure.

There wasn't any telling what these sorts of people would do to Katsuki, particularly now if they were working with Quirks. Why they were hurting other Quirked individuals, how they had gotten their Quirks, and why they wanted Katsuki were a plethora of questions Izuku would focus long and hard on once he knew his friend was okay.

This feeling wasn't entirely unfamiliar to him though. Many times, he and Katsuki had found themselves in dangerous situations, dealing with horrible, bigoted people who knew nothing but their own sense of superiority. People who thought that because Quirks were a minority, that they held power over them. Some who didn't even regard the Quirked as Humans whatsoever had been encountered, and the rhetoric they had used was straight up terrifying at times. Regardless though, they had come out on top, and had managed to keep each other safe.

With his Quirk, Katsuki was the one who was at the front, typically. He was the one who used his power to protect Izuku and the people they fought for. He complained frequently, but he would never admit that he did enjoy doing what he did. It made him feel like he was making a difference. That he was doing some good in this cruel world. Every person that they had rescued, everyone they had helped, it had been because Katsuki had been there to help Izuku out when he'd needed it.

Without his friend, Izuku didn't think it would even be possible to keep helping Quirked people.

"We'll find him, Midoriya."

A soft hand placed itself comfortably on Izuku's shoulder, gently squeezing the joint and trying to convey as much comforting emotion as possible to the curly haired boy as possible just through touch. Mina's pink hand was warm, even able to transmit heat through the clothing Izuku wore, but her touch was feather-soft, like she was ghosting over a valuable vase. Her voice was soothing, relaxing to hear.

It was exactly what Izuku needed to hear right now.

"…Thank you." He sighed, releasing much of his pent up stress and anger with his expulsion of air. He wasn't thinking properly due to the concern that was overriding his ability to think. He needed to think clearly if he had any hope of helping Katsuki.

Somehow, Mina was far calmer than he was. She barely knew Katsuki, compared to Izuku, so perhaps it was possible that she didn't have the fear or sense of urgency that Izuku did. She didn't have the bond they had. But right now, that was exactly what was needed. Someone who could help calmly figure things out, who wasn't so emotionally attached.

The situation was tense, even under the best of circumstances, but Mina was helping to think everything through, even though she had to know, when dealing with a group of Anti-Quirked people, she was going to be a prime target, without question. Still, she was here.

Izuku appreciated that, to no end.

He forced himself to take a deep breath, and to properly look around the area. Excluding the wall and the hate driven graffiti and litter, there wasn't a whole lot here, though the docks did extend either way, to the left and right, and around the corner of the wall Izuku and Mina had come in through. It was possible that before he'd freaked out, they were holding Katsuki at the end of one of those piers –

"So you showed up."

Or they'd show up right behind them. That was also an option.

Quickly, Izuku and Mina shot to turn around and look behind them like their spines were on a reactive spring, to the sight of the three kidnappers that had attacked them just a few hours ago. The one who had displayed a Quirk, the one that allowed the person's body to stretch in some way, Katsu, stood at the front of the three others, looking like some sort of mastermind, insufferably smug with a smirk on his face. The other two stood about a pace behind him at either side.

Katsuki wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"You upset about us taking your pet away or something, kid?" Katsu questioned. What made his words more unsettling was the fact that he was talking in such a mild tone, like he had just accidentally crushed a bug a child kept as a pet.

He was able to disregard human life like that… It made Izuku honestly feel disgusted that he was supposed to be like this guy.

"Where's Kacchan?" Demanded the Quirkless boy. His usual timidness thrown aside at the sight of these people again. Anger wasn't an expression he normally had on his face, but the despicable acts these three had taken had earned his ire. Even in spite of the prejudice directed towards the Quirked, Izuku never truly felt the itch to cause harm to other people… But these three were an exception.

"What, Mr. Explody Explosion?" Katsu questioned. He then twisted his body, and like something out of a comic book, his left arm stretched a good half meter or so, and then retracted back towards himself, now dragging Katsuki along the ground, and essentially throwing him halfway between both groups.

The physical condition of Katsuki indicated that he had been injured, dragged along the ground without any sort of care for his well-being. Scratched and bruises along his face and arms, still freshly cut and bleeding. None of the injuries he had suffered were too major, but the fact they were there indicated the lack of ethics these people were working with. The clamps still fixed themselves around Katsuki's hands, up to halfway up his arms, preventing him from using his Quirk, and with them still adding on their own heavy weight, he was unable to properly stand, and between the clamps, was a chain, keeping him attached to the kidnappers.

Like he was some kind of dog.

As if to further to comparison, his arms were still tied together, pressed against his body and preventing him from even moving his upper limbs whatsoever. He seemed to have struggled, and the chains must have been on tight, since markings of where the chains had been were all over his arms, and no doubt etched into his upper torso.

"Kacchan!"

"Bakugou! What the hell did they do to you?" Mina gasped out of pure reactionary shock. The actions taken against the Quirked, the outlined hatred against them, that was something that she'd grown accustomed to… but this was something new. This was taking away their basic dignity as Humans. This was…

Disgusting.

"Deku!" Katsuki reacted to his friend's presence after Mina had finished her gasp, attempting to stand onto his knees, only to be tugged back down onto the ground by a tug by the kidnappers. "Raargh! Careful, Deku! These fuckers all have Quirks!"

' _So they all did have Quirks after all…'_ Mina thought to herself, swallowing hard. The Quirked weren't any better than the Quirkless when it came to pure brutality, she knew. Neither side was guilt free. Neither side was perfect.

But this was a whole other extreme.

Izuku felt his fingers twitching, and a sharp inhale made its way through his teeth. "What… Did you…"

"Ah, he's fine. Just a bit raw now." Ryu chuckled at his unfunny joke. "I just roughed him up a bit with my Quirk." As if to punctuate the point, he held up his claw-posed rigid fingers.

"Screw you!" Katsuki spat violently, before he quickly turned to Izuku and glared at him like he was trying to burn a hole through his head by staring at him too hard. "Deku, don't do a single fucking thing these bastards want! I'll fucking fuck you up, I swear to God, Deku! Don't fucking give her to them!"

This sentence caused Izuku to blink a few times, hard, before he wound up looking towards Mina, who looked right back at him, equally as confused. "What are you talking about?"

"He's talking about our exchange."

"Exchange?" Izuku repeated, not liking where this was headed. He stole another glance towards Mina, who looked just as uncomfortable, and then back to Katsuki, who looked like he was prepared to blow up Izuku for even contemplating bending to these kidnappers' whims in any way.

"I'll put this in simple terms for you." Katsu bluntly stated, taking a step forward, and suddenly, slamming his foot into Katsuki's shoulder. In spite of the roar of pain and anger he made, the Japanese male didn't remove his foot from the Quirked boys shoulder. "These aren't random acts of violence. We've been hired to do all of this, by someone who saw your little hero act when we tried to get that freak over there the fuck out of our neighbourhood." As he spoke, he spat towards Mina with venom, clear hatred filling each work that he spoke. "If you have someone threatening you with a gun, your best option is to get hold of a gun yourself. That's what the person who hired us did. They gave us these Quirks."

Had Izuku not just been bestowed a Quirk himself, he would have called out these people on lying about Quirks and their ability to be bestowed onto other people from their original owners – But he knew that it was possible, that that was how his own Quirk, whenever it felt like actually applying itself to his body, had come from, now up to nine times.

The prospect, however, of another person having the ability to bestow Quirks of that variance to other people was one that made him incredibly uneasy. It freaked him out, that that was a possibility. Clearly whoever had that sort of power wasn't a good person if they wanted…

This to happen.

"So in return," Katsu continued, "We had to replace the Quirk that they lost giving us ours. Now, big mouth here would have done pretty nicely… But it's thanks to that pink freak stood next to you that we wound up having Berk placed in the hospital… So we're going to give you a choice – That bitch, or this punk."

Squirming as much as he could, Katsuki yelled once more, repeating himself as loudly and as clearly as he could, "Don't you dare give them a damn thing, you fucking hear – "

"Will you be quiet?" Berk, the Irish member of the group questioned, before slamming his own boot into the side of Katsuki's face, crushing his cheeks against the gravel underneath him, and the sole of his foot. His neck twisted, and his cheeks crushing and morphing his lips, Katsuki found himself unable to speak in any way, bar a few incoherent growls and attempted shakes for freedom.

The message had gotten across very clearly though. To Izuku, the idea – The very idea – Of ever giving someone up to people who clearly hated the Quirked individuals on this planet, subjecting them to someone who claimed to be able to take Quirks… That was just…. Messed u. Wrong. And as much as it pained him…

He knew, that despite all the hardships it had placed on his life, Katsuki would never do the same. He would never willingly sell out someone with a Quirk, even if he couldn't stand them on a personal level.

As far as Izuku was concerned, Mina was his friend, and he couldn't abandon his friend to these people.

…But that all being said… He still had no idea what to do about Katsuki. If he didn't do anything right now, Katsuki would just be dragged away again… And he wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

He wouldn't be able to stop it…

' _Damn it all!'_ If only his Quirk would just activate!...

"I'll go." The Acid Quirk user suddenly said, deadpanned serious, without a hint of hesitation or trickery in what she was saying. Her conviction and dedication made everyone around her stop for a moment to look at her. Her black eyes were narrow, slit-like, and glaring towards the kidnappers. "I said I'll go."

"A-Ashido, you can't – "

"Midoriya." She cut off Izuku, curtly and sharply, before her voice softened. A weak smile appeared on her face as she locked gazes with the black haired boy. "You and Bakugou were the first people who actually tried to help me, even though I was Quirked, and you're Quirkless. So thanks for that… But let's be real here. I can't ask you to just let them do God knows what to Bakugou just so I don't have to go with them. That's unfair. It's not right. If these guys are serious…"

"We are. We only want one of you." Ryu confirmed. For whatever sick reason, they were treating this like it was some sort of game. Maybe they just liked to toy with their victims by remaining inconsistent and unpredictable before they finally crushed their dreams.

Whatever the reason… "If they're being serious and plan to honour that… Then I should be the one to go. I can't ask you two to take the place, and I still need to repay you for everything that you've done for me." Tearing her eyes from Izuku, she looked at the currently incapacitated Katsuki, who was trying, but failing, to fight for his freedom. "Really, which of us should be sent to this guy, whoever he is for whatever he wants? Your best friend, or someone you've known for a few days?"

"A-Ashido…"

"Don't worry 'bout me! I'll be fine!" A cheerful smile appeared on Mina's face, despite the anxiety that she was experiencing right now. She knew that morally it was the right thing to be doing right now, but she would admit to it right now.

The prospect of this terrified her.

"That's noble." This time, another voice, not one that belonged to any of the guys there, peaked up. "But you're not gonna have to do that."

Behind the stand-off exchange, and atop the heavily vandalised wall, sat atop it with one leg bent at a sharp angle so the sole of his left foot would be placed atop next to him, and allowing his right leg to flop alongside the face of the wall, Todoroki sat, having watched the situation for only a few moments before opening his mouth and revealing his presence.

The burned side of Todoroki's face was as clear as it was possibly going to get, his short bi-coloured hair being blown away by the wind coming in from the sea blasting his white-and-red do to the side. His heterochromia was clear to anyone observant enough to his eyes to notice it, and his right arm hung loosely off the side of the wall. His calm expression conveyed his composure, even if deep down, anger was very present.

Berk was the one who spoke up when Todoroki revealed himself, pointing a sharpened weapon at the teenage boy and yelled, "You! You supporter of these freaks too?… Or are you a freak yourself!"

"Ten out of ten for observation." Todoroki flatly stated, looking between all three of the kidnappers, before he turned his attention to the two he had spoken to earlier that day at the Yuuei campus. "Midoriya, Ashido, you two okay?"

"Y-Yeah, we're okay!" Izuku nodded in relief, never having been more thankful in his life to see the Half-Cold-Halt-Hot user in his entire life. "Did- Did you call the police?"

"Yeah, I did. They're on their way, along with a Quirk-Containment unit" Responded the Hybrid Quirk user, before sighing. "Next time you're in trouble, tell me where you're going, and give me directions. It's not exactly easy to figure out where this place is, especially if no one is willing to give a Quirked person like me directions."

The mention of law enforcement seemed to have thrown the confidence and smug superiority of the kidnappers off by a country mile, each of them wearing a look of anxiety, distress, or downright fear at the revelation that the most recent Quirked individual to join the fray had already altered the relevant authorities to their location. Regardless of the public opinion, people who possessed Quirks were still human, and the law wasn't allowed to favour the Quirkless over them, or vice-versa. While there were laws against people with Quirks joining the police… There were no laws against Quirked citizens reporting concerns or incidents to the well trained, well equipped, capable law enforcement forces.

Hated or not, the police still had to do their job. With laws being changed to take the Quirked into account, it was only a matter of time until the Quirked people were able to get their say as to their concerns regarding the police force. Corruption and prejudice would soon be weeded out. It was only a matter of time.

Much like the three bigots, or mercenary for hire as they now had earned the title of, would soon be dealt with.

"Didn't we tell you not to call the cops, or we'd snap this little shits neck!" Katsu yelled, his calm and mocking composure now shattered to the abyss as he realized that he and his group had dug their own grave. He dug his foot deeper into Katsuki's shoulder, applying more of his weight into the flesh he was currently burying his boot into. While Katsuki let out a cry of pain, he retained his pride, and kept his teeth gritted, to nullify the outburst.

"If you thought that they wouldn't call the authorities after you kidnapped their friend, then you're an idiot." Todoroki answered, locking eyes with the leader of the group. "You're supposed to be an adult, right? You got a taste of a Quirk and thought you could take on the world? You don't even know how to use your power, and even if you did, you don't have a clue how the rest of us work." He sighed, almost dismissively. "For God's sake, aren't you supposed to be some sort of adult?... Then again, you're here doing this. I'm not sure I could even call you a Human, never mind an adult."

"Watch it, freak." Came Todoroki's response. "I'll throttle you with my Quirk if you don't shut it!"

In his own retaliatory response, Todoroki held up his left hand, and activated his own Quirk, allowing his palm to become engulfed in fire. The fireball he now harnessed, contained within his hand, was about the size of a baseball, glowing a brilliant bright red and orange colour, causing his red hair to curl up in response to the heat. "Unlike you, I've had plenty of time to learn how to use my Quirk. I'm willing to bet that you barely even know how to control it."

This reminded Izuku of a western standoff in the old western movies that came out of the United States, where two cowboys would stand on opposing sides of a street, preparing to quick draw their weapons at the first sign of hesitation on their opponent's side, whereupon they would fire with deadly precision to take out their targets.

It was like that, only with Superpowers. Todoroki's fire and ice powers versus the stretching ability that Katsu seemed to have, and whatever the other two had. Whatever it was that they had, it seemed that an extraordinarily powerful Quirk like Todoroki's would be enough to deal with whatever they could dish out. It was like someone with a samurai sword trying to battle someone with a bazooka. With practice and care, Todoroki could be a ruthless force of destruction, or a cold and calculating monster, depending on if he used flames or froze the molecules around him.

This came down to a tense interaction where whoever backed down first would lose. Even the slightest sign of weakness would be an opening for both these superpowered humans to unleash their respective Quirks onto one another.

And all Izuku could do was watch this go down.

Why… Why the hell would his Quirk just _not activate?!_

He needed to help! He was doing everything Toshinori-sensei had told him that he had to do! He was doing everything that he needed to for his Quirk to activate! Why?!

Whether it was nerves, because he saw a weakness in the young man's defences, or sheer desperation, Katsu was the one who struck first. Initially, it looked like he was about to throw a reverse punch into the empty air in front of him, but due to his Quirk, his arm extended a good two and a half meters towards the Hybrid Quirk user.

Katsu Sutoret – Quirk – Stretch – Katsu's bestowed Quirk allows him to turn his body into a rubber-like substance, which can extend, while retaining its muscular density. He can extend his limbs up to six times their original length, but in doing so, leaves his body more open to physical attacks. He has not had this Quirk for long enough to determine any negative effects that may occur due to overuse.

While it would have been easy for Todoroki to unleash a steam of flame towards the attacker, he instead quickly pushed on his foot and allowed himself to jump behind the wall, jumping quickly out of the way of the strike. What he hoped to achieve was completely unknown, since Katsu could just bend his arms with his Quirk and grab –

"Uraraka!"

Uraraka? Uraraka was here?

Hearing a loud sound that could only be described as a loud clap was instantly followed by Todoroki suddenly leaping up high into the air, inhumanly high, about four meters high, way above the wall until he had a birds-eye view of the situation. While he took a brief moment to quickly balance himself out from floating off too much, he then unleashed a barrage of fire, targeted at the point between Katsu and Katsuki; which was the chain being used as a leash. Heating it up rapidly to a high degrees seemed to be the goal that Todoroki had had in mind in the first place!

Suddenly, everything happened at once.

"Release!"

As quickly as he'd risen, the teenage boy fell to the ground, and the second he did, from his right foot and hand, ice began to rapidly form, instantly freezing Katsu and encasing him in a layer of frozen water molecules.

At the same time, Ryu made a rush towards his ally, attempting to use his own Quirk to shatter the ice off of his comrade. His own Quirk would have been able to crack the ice into a thousand pieces, putting everyone back in the original situation that they were in.

Until he began to float suddenly. Rising up about the same height that Todoroki had risen, only in this man's case, he began to hover when he reached this point, helpless and completely at the mercy of his own apparently lack of gravity.

"If you could have done something from a distance, you wouldn't have tried to run towards him." If Izuku had more time to react to Uraraka's presence, he would have actually smiled, but he could barely even bring himself to acknowledge that she'd just appeared out of nowhere. "If you can't touch something, your Quirk is useless, isn't it?" She had a smile on her face, indicating pride that she'd figured this out, but with the sweat dripping from her forehead, it was clear this had been a dangerous leap of faith.

"You little bastards!" Hissed the older leader, still frozen due to Todoroki. Suddenly it was like the pain caught up to him. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow!…"

"I thought as much too." Todoroki nodded, looking up at Ryu. His right foot stood atop a pile of the ice he had generated, and he took a look at his captive Katsu. "Your Quirk makes your body stretch, like rubber. When rubber freezes and you try to bend it, it snaps."

Katsu just stared at Todoroki, hissing still in the pain of ice freezing to his skin.

"Unless you want to shatter, don't. Move." Warned Todoroki, before turning his head to face the final member of the group, Berk, who still stood right by Katsuki, refusing to move, despite his acknowledgement that he was utterly outclassed. The scarred boy's left hand rose, sparks of fire bouncing from his palms. "Stay there."

While he'd remained very quiet throughout this entire fight on account of his face being crushed into the ground, Katsuki was now free of this, and was still filled with a roaring fire. "Oh I'm gonna fucking kill you fuckers! Get this fucking clamp off of me!"

Gulping, Izuku looked towards the pink skinned girl next to him. For a moment, he hesitated to ask, but he felt there wasn't any alternative. She was safe now, and she might have the only Quirk that could release his friend. "A-Ashido, c-can you use your Acid to get Kacchan out of that clamp?"

Mina nodded, understanding that her Quirk was the only one that was going to be viable to get Katsuki out of the clamp restricting his own Quirk. She took just one step forward towards the ash blond prisoner, already preparing the least irritating, and least harmful to the skin acid she could make that would also corrode and dissolve away the metal that surrounded Katsuki's hands.

In a last ditch effort to evade some sort of retribution from Katsuki, Berk suddenly produced from his belt, a long, six inch serrated knife. Designed for slicing off chunks of meat, a weapon Mina recognised too well from this guy. The mere sight of the metal caused her to flinch for just a second, which was all that Bark needed.

He fell to one knee, and held the knife just above Katsuki's throat. "Take a step towards me and I'll slice this little bastard's neck wide open."

Todoroki didn't hesitate. Without even a seconds wait, he unleashed a stream of fire, controlled and refined in how it was bellowed out, it avoided hitting Katsuki whatsoever, traveling in what could almost be called a straight line, and encompassing Berk in the flame of his Quirk, Todoroki had showed no mercy towards the final attacker.

Which made it all the more surprising that it didn't work.

Berk Sciath – Quirk – Armour – The Quirk that Berk has been bestowed reinforces his anatomy underneath his skin, making it solid like granite between his muscle structure and his skin layer. He can activate this at any time, and it gives him enhanced durability, while sacrificing his flexibility. It also gives him a certain degree of immunity to the elements, such as fire. He has not had the Quirk long enough to determine any negative side effects.

"Nice try." Amazingly, Berk didn't even seem phased by the sudden dousing of flame that had engulfed him, shrugging it off due to his own Quirk, activating it and defending himself from the attack. With a swift motion, he then brought his knife down to Katsuki's neck. The calm that he was displaying was eerie, like he'd almost expected this to happen. Like he'd been waiting for it.

It was impossible to even understand the logic or thought processes being used with these people anymore. Nothing made sense about what they were doing or why they were doing it. I

Hatred was what was pushing these people to go so far just to hurt the kids they faced, simply due to them having Quirks. Pure hate was driving each inconsistent action. How they felt themselves about the Quirked when they had Quirks themselves was another mystery in itself, but not one that could be considered right now.

To Izuku, it was almost admirable. Almost admirable that they were each willing to go so far for something that they seemed to genuinely believe in.

Almost.

Right now, Izuku only wanted to do one thing – And that was to stop them from laying a finger on Katsuki.

In truth, he never really figured out just when his body had finally processed the Quirk bestowed onto him. He never figured out how he had reflexively activated the ability, and he never really figured out just when he'd made the leap to stop the violence.

"Raaaaaaaaargh!"

One second, he was on the ground, and the next, he was leaping through the air at an incredible speed, and he could feel the overflowing, adrenaline pumping, immense power coercing through his veins like a fast-acting poison, which he instantly knew how to use despite never having used it before. He just was working it, and he was away, like a bullet straight from a gun, charging towards his friend's kidnapper without any hesitation or even firm understanding of what was happening himself.

Beneath his feet, the ground had crumpled, cracked and crushed by the sheer power of the leap Izuku had made, and he was already tackling his target into the wall in less than a second. Huge cracks and booms had been heard as the Quirk One For All was unleashed onto the world by a Quirkless boy getting his first taste of power.

Berk's attention had been focused on Todoroki in that moment, and he hadn't been expected what equated to a ballistic missile torpedoing towards him from the side, but this only acted as a positive for Izuku, who managed to swipe Berk away from Katsuki, making him drop the knife, before he even knew that he was being tackled. For everyone else, the entire world stopped still for a moment, and seemed to miss a few frames once it began to speed up.

The pain was instant, although Izuku didn't even acknowledge it until he found himself suddenly on top of destroyed rubble, concrete and blood that he couldn't tell if it was his own or from the person he had just shoulder-tackled with One For All.

A cloud of smoke where Izuku had stood, and suddenly, a huge collapse in the wall just a few meters away, and there laid a bloody and broken Izuku, alongside an unconscious Berk.

Mina had dealt with the worst of it, dust and smaller bits of concrete ricocheting up and hitting her. She didn't have any real idea what was happening until a few seconds later, and she suddenly sound herself wide eyed, jaw dropped in surprise and amazement.

The entire universe needed a moment to recall when the group of saw the impact results from Izuku, all of them surprised alone by the revelation of Izuku even having a Quirk. Todoroki, Katsuki, both staring at the supposed to be Quirkless boy like their entire reality had just been shifted. Uraraka didn't miss a beat, running over to try a comfort the horrifically injured boy, while Mina just stood there.

Katsuki in particular looked horrified. It didn't take Mina long at all to understand why, and to join him in his surprise.

Barely even a second.

* * *

"What… The fuck was that, Deku?!"

After a few hectic hours, during which complete confusion and chaos had been the only focus of every person involved. Only a few moments after Izuku had first activated his Quirk, the police had shown up because of Todoroki's call to them, and arrested the kidnappers. Special mechanisms that helped repress Quirks were used, that had been developed hastily in order to limit the damage of Quirked criminals, to prevent them from using their powers.

At first, the police thought Izuku was involved, due to the obvious use of a Quirk, but he was quickly cleared up when the rest of the group explained everything. Thankfully, the police held no particular issues with the Quirked, only doing their jobs when it came to dealing with people who misused their powers, and quickly helped get Izuku to the nearest hospital. Waiting for an ambulance would have taken too long, and Izuku needed treatment as soon as possible. The state of his legs and what had happened to his shoulder…

God knew what sort of complications could arise. Thankfully, he was completely unconscious at the time, so he couldn't feel the excruciating pain that would have been surging through him.

They'd been lucky enough to be taken to a hospital where they actually employed a Healing Quirk user. As time had passed, Quirks were very slowly becoming integrated, albeit much to the chagrin and fury of many, into certain areas. Healing Quirks in particular were the first to be accepted, as they could be used to help the injured, and were exceptional abilities that couldn't harm anyone directly. Said person had used their Quirk on Izuku, healing his broken bones in a matter of minutes.

Todoroki and Uraraka, whoever she was, had joined Katsuki and Mina on their trip to the hospital to see Izuku, and an air of clear worry had set the tone for the entire journey. Everyone had been worried. It amazed Mina just how many people cared for Izuku, but then again, so did she. He'd helped her when no one else was willing to, and she knew that he'd done the same for both Katsuki and Todoroki. She didn't know what had happened between him and this Uraraka girl, but she assumed that something similar had happened.

She'd prayed he'd be okay.

When they all heard the diagnosis, that it was just broken bones, and no major complications were to be expected, the tension had instantly been released, and Mina had collapsed into the nearest chair with the loudest sigh anyone had ever heard in their entire lives.

He'd been asleep for the last four hours before he'd woken up, and Katsuki had demanded an explanation barely three minutes later.

Now that he was awake, Izuku almost looked guilty. Both his legs wrapped up in bandages, as well as one that went diagonally from his left shoulder around his chest and torso, he looked like he'd been thrown through a brick wall, which wasn't exactly far from the truth either. His eyes seemed to dart away, not sure what he wanted to say to them.

"I-I guess that I just… Was a late bloomer?" He suggested awkwardly, unable to look any of his friends in the eye.

Katsuki paced back and forth, while Mina sat by Izuku's side, trying to comfort the black haired boy with whatever the hell she could think of, not that much was coming to mind. Katsuki's pacing was distracting her.

Not that she blamed him. A late bloomer wasn't exactly the most common thing in the world, anymore anyway. Initially, when Quirks had shown up, they had appeared in people regardless of age, incredibly sporadically, until it was just the new-borns who started developing sins of said abilities. Some didn't learn about their powers until later on in life, like Katsuki. But someone as late as Izuku?...

"You have your freaking pinkie toe joint!" Katsuki yelled accusingly at the injured teenager, clearly more worried than he was furious. He didn't seem to know any other way to convey his concern other than loud yelling. "You don't have a body that would have fucking developed a Quirk! Every single damn person who has a Quirk doesn't have the damn pinkie joint, so how the hell could you have developed one while you still have it!?"

"It's possible that's not the only way to develop a Quirk." Todoroki suggested, from his seat on the opposing side of Izuku. "We don't know a whole lot about them as a whole. Nothing to say that the pinkie joint is the only part of the body that doesn't exist when the body develops a Quirk. A tendon, perhaps?"

Uraraka nodded. "It's not like that's impossible. There haven't been enough studies to say otherwise."

Izuku hated this. He hated lying, not having told them the truth already. He despised it, well and truly, but he just wasn't sure if he should tell them. He had no idea if Toshinori-sensei thought it would be a good idea, or if it would be the worst possible one imaginable. One For All was a unique Quirk…

And he wasn't sure if he should explain how it worked or not.

While Todoroki, Uraraka and Katsuki debated over the possibilities of Izuku's Quirks origins, he felt a warm hand suddenly wrap itself around his own. When he looked to see who is belonged to, he saw pink skin, leading back to Mina.

Her face wasn't difficult to read, despite how alien it looked. A combination of relief and pure terror was etched onto her expression. Tears were nearly forming in her waters, black eyes, her hair covering up a lot of her uniquely coloured dark sclera. Still, her hand was warm, and she was able to speak clearly.

"I was worried… I'm so glad you're alright, Midoriya."

Izuku blushed for a moment. He and Mina had only known one another for a few days, but he did consider her a friend. While he was unsure if that was how she felt in the past, the display now relinquished those thoughts. He was touched by the worry she had felt, guilty as he also was for causing everyone so much worry.

He gently squeezed her hand in return, though he felt his face heat up in doing so. "I-I'm sorry I-I made you worry."

"Are you feeling okay?"

"M-My legs and shoulder feel okay… I'm just tired, more than anything… I think that lady said that her Quirk would make me use up stamina so I'd feel exhausted for a while afterwards…"

"You… Were Quirkless before you helped me, weren't you?"

"Y-Yeah."

"So… What was that? I mean… You have a Quirk now, don't you?" She smiled softly, showing she wasn't accusing him of anything, but instead was asking out of curiosity. "I mean… Most of us show signs of our Quirks before we turn four, unless we were one of the randoms that just developed Quirks out of nowhere, no matter how old we were. Most of us have physical features… You don't. So… How?"

"I can explain that."

A deeper, thicker voice suddenly entered the room, silencing every other person as they turned to face a tall, skinny male with dirty, messy blond hair. Mina instantly recognised him as the person she had met earlier today, the one Izuku had introduced her to.

"T-Toshinori-sensei!" Izuku exclaimed, attempting to sit up more in his bed, though he couldn't on account of his wounds. Toshinori held up a hand to tell him not to concern himself with such an action, seeing it as an unnecessary formality.

Uraraka and Todoroki both turned to face their school teacher in surprise that he'd bothered to show up, while Katsuki didn't even bother to act polite in the slightest. "The fuck're you doing here?"

"Midoriya, my boy, you didn't explain your Quirk to them, did you?" Toshinori questioned, to which Izuku instantly shook his head. "Of course not. But there's no hiding that you were Quirkless before today. No one here would believe that you're just a late developer, so it's better to just come lean, I think."

* * *

 **This took way longer than I expected it to - Sorry guys! college is really starting to pick up things now, so I need to focus more on that, but I'm still trying to get my work on here done for you guys ^_^**

 **Lot of plans here, so don't worry, I plan on addressing the kidnappers, how they acquired their Quirks, and Uraraka and more in the next chapter. Don't worry, not holes shall be left in this story! Lots of things will be happening next chapter, which I'm very much looking forward to writing and sharing with you guys ^_^ I hope to get the next chapter out some time in April, but don't hold me to that. Like I said, college work takes priority, and I really do need to pass my course, but I won't leave you guys hanging like a lot of authors do. I refuse ^_^**

 **either way, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time. See ya!**


	4. A Truly Unique Quirk's Impact

There wasn't a huge deal of things that could honestly be said about what Toshinori had just told the four previously unaware teenagers about, regarding the origins regarding Izuku's Quirk. Frankly, Quirks were already an unknown variable at the best of times, but the concept of transferring one Quirk from one person to another person was going against every rule that had been established with these mysterious superpowers. It threw everything that was supposedly known about them out the window, leaving them with powers that they didn't even come close to understanding at the palms of their hands yet again.

Silence filled Izuku's hospital room for quite a while after Toshinori had explained One For All, and the transference of Quirks to them. Even Izuku kept his mouth shut, not really sure what he could add that would be of any value whatsoever. Mina hadn't removed her hand from his, but she didn't look at him, her head racing too much for her to even remember to look towards him.

Of everyone there, Katsuki seemed to be taking it the worst. While everyone else was just keeping their mouths closed as they processed the information, Katsuki seemed to understand and comprehend what he'd been told by far the quickest, and he was reeling from what all this information meant. His mouth was ajar, and his breathing was rather intense, though his mouth and his eyes had become small and narrow, focused squarely on the floor in front of him. Clearly he was thinking of the thousands of implications of that were occurring, and he wanted to say something in response to them, but the words just refused to exit his mouth. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to say it.

No one really knew what to say. The entire situation was… Unique, to say the very least, and to say the very worst, was one of the most societal-suicidal occurrences everyone had ever heard.

In this world, the Quirkless ruled the world, and the laws always favoured the ones of them that didn't possess any superhuman abilities, and as the world spun right now, those who didn't have Quirks had the best chance in life.

Hearing about a Quirkless person acquiring a Quirk was unheard of in itself… But it felt like a huge gut punch that it had to be Izuku that would break this rule.

Letting out a sigh as he looked up from the floor, Todoroki glanced around the room, trying to read the mood, but when he realized that no one else was going to say anything, he decided to be the one to break the silence, however contributing it may be. Honestly, he didn't know what to say.

"I… I'm not sure what to say to all of that." He admitted, looking over towards the black haired boy.

Izuku looked over to Todoroki at the same time. His green eyes met with his friend's heterochromic eyes. Todoroki knew and trusted Izuku, and knew that Izuku hadn't made this choice lightly. There wasn't a chance that he'd taken the choice to accept a Quirk lightly. That couldn't be the case at all. Izuku didn't take Quirks like they were some sort of jokes, he knew the horrible reality that they had to face on a regular basis.

"You can call him the fucking idiot that he is."

Katsuki had finally found his voice, but he was still trembling in every word that he said. His fingers were trembling, but his breathing seemed to have calmed down. His eyes had narrowed, and his expression conveyed one of something that Izuku recognised, but hadn't seen in a while.

Anger.

It wasn't anger that he felt towards people who hated the Quirked, or bigots, or anything like that. Instead, this was anger that he felt when his classmates turned on him when they discovered his Quirk. He felt betrayed, wronged, like he'd been slapped in the face, and spat on from on high. Like he'd been treated like some sort of joke.

Like Izuku hadn't actually taken a word that he had said about living as a Quirked person seriously.

Izuku knew. He knew everything that Katsuki had been though since Explosion finally developed, and his Quirk came into being. He knew about how he'd had to hide his powers for as long as he possibly could. He knew about how everyone Katsuki had known had turned on him, turned their backs on him when they learned about his Quirked origins. How his own parents had abandoned him.

Izuku knew all of this, and he still accepted a Quirk? Was this all some sort of game to him? Did he really understand the pain Quirked people went through?

"H-Hey, take it easy, Bakugou." Mina said, putting on a shaky smile onto her lips, though to be honest, she felt the same way in a sense. "Let's at least listen to what Midoriya had to say about – "

"What the hell is there to wait for him to say?" Snapped the Explosion Quirk user, looking at every other teenager in the room, not willing to make eye contact with Toshinori. "I know for a damn fact that you guys are thinking the same damn thing – Deku's helped all of us, but he obviously doesn't know a fucking thing about being Quirked!"

"That – That's not true!" Izuku defended himself suddenly. "I – I've seen what people do to Quirked people! I didn't… I didn't accept a Quirk without thinking about all of that!"

"Then why in the holy fucking hell did you accept a fucking Quirk?!"

Shifting his eyes to his left, Izuku took a look at Mina's pink hair and skin. He could still feel her warmth from the hand she kept on his. Barely even knew the girl, yet Izuku truly did consider her to be an incredible person, a valued friend, and someone who he felt almost a kinship with. He understood her easily, despite their vastly different personalities. She had rapidly become someone he cared for.

He then shifted his gaze towards Uraraka, who was sat on the same side of the room as Mina, only further away. Her expression showed concern, soft and gentle. He'd met her a while ago, and they had quickly become close friends, as close as he and Bakugou were, but their relationship was far calmer. When she had revealed that she was one of the only Quirked people that he knew who was willingly going to Yuuei to make life easier for her parents, who she had explained were poor as dirt. She had come to attend Yuuei to learn to better use her Quirk to maybe help them somehow.

Next, Izuku's eyes shot over to Todoroki. He was obviously having a hard time hearing all of this, despite the trust he placed in the formerly Quirkless boy who he felt that he owed his life to. He remembered all of the stories that the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user had told him about his family life. All actions done by Quirkless people. The scar that covered his left eye, done by the Quirkless. The pain that his life had been since his quirk activated, done by the Quirkless.

Finally, Izuku looked at Toshinori-sensei. Someone who was like him. He was previously Quirkless, and he knew the truth about how Izuku felt right now. He was probably the only person who knew. The only person who thought the same way that Izuku did in this room, but he wasn't saying anything. Because it wasn't for him to say. It was for Izuku to say, because if it came from anyone other than him, it would be empty, meaningless.

He needed to say it for himself.

At the end though, it was the warmth of Mina's hand that gave Izuku the right answer. In response to the tense air and the apprehension that she felt, Mina's fingers seemed to make a tighter grip around Izuku's hand, a couple of her longer nails digging into his skin, but he felt no pain. He could just feel the heat her hand radiated. That feeling, that the alien looking girl gave, it reminded him of what he'd always said, what he'd always truly believed.

"…Because Quirked people are people as well." Izuku answered earnestly.

For the first time since the revelation, Mina was able to look at Izuku, her eyes wide at the statement that he had made. He hadn't forced himself to say it. The way he had expressed his belief made it clear, he wasn't preaching, but he truly did believe that this was the case. He didn't differentiate, he didn't make any distinctions.

Quirked and Quirkless – They were the same as far as Izuku was concerned.

"I… My application for Yuuei… It was turned down." He revealed to a surprised room, all except Toshinori making a gasping noise. With the announcement that he had made that he'd actually been accepted, it wasn't a surprise.

Not to mention, there probably wasn't a finer candidate for schools in the entirety of Tokyo. Izuku was a model student, and had been acknowledged as that fairly publicly. He'd even been offered scholarships for his incredible intelligence and academic prowess. Because he was Quirkless, he was better recognised than many Quirked students who rightfully surpassed him, something he hated seeing. People just couldn't look past the Quirks they saw.

How their friends turned on Katsuki when they learned he had a Quirk. How it all became meaningless that they'd grown up together just because of something that he couldn't control…

Katsuki hadn't changed until the harsh reality of what being Quirked meant forced him to. He was still a person.

"Quirkless students… They can't be with the Quirked. People… People still think you guys are dangerous… But you're not dangerous at all. You're just… People. You're not going to hurt me because I'm Quirkless. No one there is going to… but everyone who doesn't know Quirked people like I do thinks you will. That's why I accepted the Quirk. Because… You're people. You're my friends, and I want to be able to just attend school with you. I want to be able to walk in the streets with you without worrying about a repeat of what happened today. I… I want to help end the persecution of Quirks."

"And you think that doing that with a Quirk will help?" Todoroki questioned the logic Izuku was using rather sceptically, not sure if he was able to understand his friends thinking. Surely a Quirkless person helping to bridge the gaps between the Quirkless and the Quirked would have a better effect.

"A Quirkless student who can't even attend a school for the Quirked can't do a lot… But that doesn't mean that I can't held build bridges with people who are Quirkless." Izuku smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head with his free hand. "I-I mean… I'm pretty much the only one here aside from Toshinori-sensei who understands what growing up Quirkless is like. I… I know how people who are Quirkless think. I could help persuade them. I could – "

"Fuck this!"

Katsuki refused to listen to another word of this sort of rhetoric anymore. Despite his knowledge that Izuku may indeed truly have the Quirked's best interests at heart… That was absolutely meaningless right now. He refused to listen to this conversation anymore. Without even saying a word, he stood up and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him as hard as he could manage. The look on his face as he stormed out the room just screamed fury.

It was an action only Izuku could understand. He didn't even flinch at the action.

There was no reason for him to subjugate his own life to the status of someone who was born with a Quirk. The bridge that they had dreamed of building for so long had now been completely vaporised into oblivion, and wouldn't be seen again. The Quirkless simply didn't have any desire to listen to the Quirked. So long as the Quirked existed, there wasn't anything that needed discussing.

They were the enemy of Humanity. And they were dangerous.

That was what Katsuki was thinking.

It wasn't hard to understand how he'd reached that conclusion, Izuku reminded himself. Katsuki had been through a lot.

"I imagine that could have gone better." Commented Todoroki with a sigh. He had always known Katsuki to be hot-headed, but he hadn't predicted that level of hostility towards Izuku of all people.

"Perhaps I should go speak to him." Toshinori suggested, already trying to rise to his feet to try and catch up to the angry teenager. Since he was going to be one of the group's teacher in the upcoming week, he felt it was part of his duty to make sure that his future pupil wasn't going to do anything reckless.

"I think that'll just make him angrier." Uraraka said, already on her feet and halfway across the room. She offered a small smile to Izuku, and then back to Toshinori. "I'll go talk to him. I kinda know him better than you do, Toshinori-sensei."

Izuku nodded in his agreement with his brown haired friend's suggestion. It made sense for Uraraka to speak with Katsuki. Otherwise, he didn't even want to imagine who or what he was going to blow up. His red eyed friend could be unpredictable, and that did give him the potential to be dangerous.

In this situation, Uraraka had been as clueless as him Todoroki, and Mina had all been too. He probably wasn't in the mood to listen to Izuku right now, since he felt he'd just been left in the dark, and he would probably point blank refuse to even acknowledge Toshinori, since he saw him as the one who screwed Izuku over. In regards to the people who were are clueless as him, he had many occurrences in his time with the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user that caused friction due to certain pessimism and bluntness between the two personalities, and he barely even knew Mina enough to even acknowledge that she had the first idea about anything regarding this whole situation. Even though Izuku had made it clear he felt Mina could be trusted, Katsuki needed more than just that to go on.

Uraraka on the other hand, he knew reasonably well. He knew why she was attending Yuuei, and he knew her personality. She was one of Izuku's best friends, and by extension, she and Katsuki had developed a rather close friendship, despite it looking almost abusive to outsiders. Katsuki was as blunt, loud and violent with her as he was with anyone else, but in his own destructive way, it showed he valued her as much as he valued anyone else. Uraraka knew this very well, and knew he'd had a rougher time of being Quirked than she had. She had shown patience with him, and he'd eventually warmed up to her.

She was easily the best choice to talk to him about Izuku now having a Quirk. Anyone else could easily just make the situation worse.

Uraraka left the room after that in pursuit of the Explosion Quirk user, leaving the remaining four people in the room in a short silence while they figured out what to say next. For the most part, Mina and Todoroki seemed to have accepted this newfound Quirk of Izuku's rather quickly, though their concerns weren't at all dismissed whatsoever. They were at the forefront of discrimination in this world, they knew the truth of what Izuku had just thrown himself into.

"Midoriya." Todoroki said, causing Izuku to turn to face him. "You do know that your old life is pretty much over, right? As long as you've got that Quirk, you're not gonna be able to live a normal life. Even if you passed it on to someone else, as soon as people see you in a Yuuei uniform… That's it. You can't take that back."

"What… What're you saying, Todoroki?" Izuku asked, not sure where his friend was actually going with this.

"I'm saying, if you want to back out and get rid of that Quirk, this is probably going to be your last chance. The hospital staff will probably keep quiet, and we could make up some story about you getting hit by a Strength Enhancement Type Quirk to make sure that any suspicions about you are lifted." The naturally Quirked born boy sighed. "If you leave this room with that Quirk, and don't get rid of it, then you're going to have to deal with the same crap we all have had to. And it's not fun. You're going to be attacked in the streets for no reason. People are going to hate you. You'll become invalid just for even existing. Midoriya, this isn't a fun way to live. You need to be certain if you're gonna do this."

Though he wasn't looking at her, he could tell Mina was nodding her head along with everything that Todoroki had just said. Her hand tightened even further around his, and she spoke softly. "That's right…. This isn't a nice way to live at all. If you can get out of living this way… Then you should."

Sighing, Izuku knew what they were trying to say. While Toshinori and Katsuki were talking about the bridges between the Quirked and the Quirkless, and how to try to unify them, these two were thinking more about Izuku as an individual. No doubt Katsuki was thinking about that too, but he'd be damned if he ever let Izuku hear that.

In the few years since Quirks had become commonplace, those who had manifested them had been treated worse than dirt in many parts of the world. Japan in particular wasn't a very friendly place for the Quirked. Even though exceptions did exist, as they did in any country in the world, there was a particularly high anti-Quirk sentiment in large cities, due to how many Quirks showed up in the densely packed areas. Heavy levels of violence followed people who had Quirks.

Some gangs had even weaponised people who had particularly destructive Quirks. Entire blocks could be destroyed by people who had the right powers, which was not helping the cases of the Quirked.

In a city like Tokyo… Quirks weren't just feared. They were well and truly hated by a great many people. Mina and Todoroki… They knew that all too well.

And so did Izuku.

"…I didn't…. I didn't accept this power thinking that it was gonna be easy… I know how much the world hates Quirks right now." He admitted. How couldn't he know just how much Quirks were hated? From the looks people gave him for not publicly denouncing the Quirked, to the store signs that went along the lines of 'Freaks not welcome' to everything to straight up attacking people with Quirks in the streets. He knew it all. "I… Know what I've gotten myself into here. I know that people are gonna hate me… but I can't attend Yuuei without a Quirk. I can't leave you all to fend for yourselves, and unless I have a Quirk… I… I can't do anything to help you."

"You already helped us out so much, you don't need to get yourself into such an awful situation just to keep looking out for us." Mina tried to assure him, with a weak smile, which was all she could manage at the current moment. "You – You've been wanting to help end the fighting between people who don and don't have Quirks, right? Wouldn't you be able to do more if you didn't have a Quirk?... It'd be harder for people to listen to you if you had one…"

Throughout this, Toshinori remained totally silent, not putting in any of his own thoughts or feeling regarding the matter at all. He decided that this was a choice that Izuku needed to make for himself. He'd had a taste of One For all now, and he was aware of the life he'd lead if he kept the Quirk. It wasn't normally done, but if Izuku decided he didn't want this Quirk anymore, he would accept it back. Theoretically, the power should return to Toshinori.

Anything he said could sway Izuku's mind. Having mentored the boy for years, and having shared the secret of his Quirk with him, he knew that Izuku looked to him as an influential figure. He hadn't made his admiration of his tutor a secret, much to the fluster of said tutor, but that admiration itself came with risks. There wasn't any doubt that the boy was intelligent, and no matter what he did, he'd spend his life trying to create equality between those who had powers and those who didn't.

But he had to make the choice as to how he was going to do that. No one else could make that decision for him.

"People won't listen to me even if I was Quirkless." Izuku sadly commented. "Kacchan's parents threw him out when they learned he had a Quirk though I tried to do everything I could to stop them from doing it. It's happened so often, because I defend people with Quirks… I just… I want to prove that you're not dangerous to people. If Yuuei won't accept me while I'm Quirkless… Then I have to accept this Quirk." His hand became a fist, which he held up close to his face, like he was inspecting the flow of power in his veins personally. "I'm going to help change the world and how it treats Quirks… And I'm going to do it while I stand with all of you. I'm accepting this power because I want to stand with you."

* * *

Katsuki was tempted, so very tempted, to start unleashing explosions left, right and centre, and if he was alone, he probably would have. In the middle of a hospital though, he was going to get marked down as a Quirk using terrorist, which was the last thing that he wanted to happen, infuriating as the Quirkless were at times. He didn't want to just add fuel onto the fire for them to try and persecute the Quirked.

Especially now his best friend was as stupid enough fucking idiot to accept a Quirk himself.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Katsuki noticed another patient, one that had yellow eyes and scales patterned around their skin. It was another person who had a Quirk, who had been strapped into a moving bed and was being rushed from one part of the hospital to another, large cuts and wounds scattered across their body. There wasn't any doubt that this draconic person had suffered some sort of prejudiced based assault due to having an inhumane appearance, which gave away his Quirked origins.

It was just fortunate that hospitals were neutral in the whole affair. The Quirked were treated just like the Quirkless were. Katsuki was thankful for that, otherwise he was worried as to how Izuku would ever had found treatment for his utterly mangled injuries.

Infuriatingly, he saw some of the Quirkless patients spitting at the injured lizard-like person as he was being wheeled away. Bigots, who held nothing but contempt to the Quirked, who would only ever lash out when there was no way for it to backfire against them.

Katsuki was pissed. His best friend had done the stupidest thing known to man and kept his mouth shut about it, he himself had wound up a hostage, something that had left him worthless and helpless, a fact he couldn't stand, and now he was witnessing straight up discrimination against people like him happen right in front of him.

And the Quirkless person had sat back down, looking smug and proud of themselves. The same kinds of scumbags that allowed this sort of thing to happen. The same scum that had caused him and everyone he cared about to start living such miserable lives.

Responses be damned.

The harasser was about thirty in his age, with brown hair turning white, which indicated a great level of stress. He was probably some sort of businessman, or contractor. Once he had sat down, he'd instantly put a phone to his ear and began talking, muttering something about a contract of some sort, not that Katsuki bothered listening. When he saw Katsuki stood right in front of him, staring at him, he attempted to act polite. "Hold on a second." He said to whoever was on the other end of the phone, before he covered up the microphone, before looking at the ruffian looking teenager. "Can I help you?"

"Don't do that again." Katsuki stated bluntly, making sure his fierce glare was making clear eye contact. His hands were right by his sides, ready to unleash his powers if he had to.

"I'm sorry?" Clearly, this man had no idea what Katsuki was even referring to, which just angered the teenager more. The fact this person couldn't even see what they'd done wrong was something that irked him just as much as the actual act.

It said everything that Katsuki would ever need to know about this man. He didn't even see the Quirked as people. Just some kind of parasite and strain on society that just needed to go away.

"Mess with me, and I'll fucking make you sorry."

"What?"

"Go ahead. Keep playing dumb. Just see how much more you'll piss me off. See how well that'll work out for you."

Looking at Katsuki like he'd just swallowed some sort of wasp, the man spoke quickly into the microphone of his cell phone again. "I'm gonna have to call you back, sir, I've run into some certain issues at the hospital. I'll be sure to let you know how your daughter is doing… Yes sir, okay. See you soon." With that, he then tapped on the button on his phone to hang up the call, and he then looked to Katsuki with clear irritation. "Now, what are you talking about?

"The way you spat at that Quirked guy in the emergency stretcher. Don't fucking do that again."

"You're upset about a worthless Quirked rodent?" The man seemed more surprised than anything else. "What are you, some kind of politically correct justice warrior? The Quirked are a threat to us, and there isn't a single damn thing wrong with that statement."

"That man didn't do a damn thing to you."

"I wonder who he did do something to though. How many people he tried to hurt. The Quirked are just a bunch of parasites. They're barely even fit to work as servants for – "

Without even thinking about what he was doing, Katsuki unleashed a small series of explosions that crackled in his palms. They were loud and crisp enough that any noise around him stopped completely, and all head shot towards him and his scorching hands like he'd just broken a television set. None of the explosions Katsuki had generated harmed anyone, but they certainly had scared a few of the people in the room.

"People who have Quirks are not your fucking slaves!" The Explosion Quirk user screamed aloud. "We are not fucking beneath you! We are fucking _people_!" His loud voice unleashed every scrap of anger and frustration that had been built up over the course of the day, and he was able to scare nearly everyone in the room with this yelling.

Including the man that he had been facing off against. Suddenly, any composure that the man had was gone, as he jumped back into his seat. In one instant, his neat clothing that he had clearly kept nice and tidy became a complete mess, and his sweat became visible in the light as it reflected. It was a common reaction that Quirkless people had when they realized that they were badmouthing Quirks right in front of someone who had one.

As far as Katsuki was concerned, it was a sign of cowardice, and that just pissed him off more.

"What? Got nothing to say?" Asked the infuriated Quirk user, his hands still smouldering from the activation of his powers. "No witty remarks to make?"

"Katsuki!"

Before he could even react to hearing his name, Katsuki suddenly found himself with two slender arms holding back his hands and restraining him in such a way that he couldn't freely move his hands anymore. The actions weren't particularly strong, especially against someone who had as much developed muscle as Katsuki had in comparison, but the recognition of the voice was what made him not bother to resist.

It was Uraraka, trying to pull him away from the Man he was currently terrifying with all the might that she had without using her own Quirk to just float and drag him, trying to prevent him from causing any more of a scene than he already was doing. "Katsuki, stop trying to cause trouble!"

"Get off!"

"I'm really sorry about Katsuki here!" Uraraka quickly apologised to the man Katsuki had been screaming at while pulling him away at the same time. "I really am! He's – He's kind of hot-headed, and a bit of an idiot!"

"The fuck you say, Uraraka?!"

Despite a few more loud protests by the short tempered teenage boy, Uraraka managed to get him away from his chosen target, moving him from one side of the room to another, and getting him out of the room altogether by dragging him through a series of hallways. At some point, he eventually just stopped resisting, as he knew what she was doing, and just went along with her.

She was pulling him away so that he didn't wind up killing the person that he'd gotten angry with. Katsuki was also growing very angry, to the point that attacking the guy didn't even seem out of the question anymore. With everything that had happened to him this day, it was a wonder he hadn't already just completely snapped already.

Eventually, the two of them found themselves in a secluded hallway, with no one around, no one to interrupt the conversation that they were going to have to have. Once Uraraka let go of Katsuki, he stepped away to look at her, and then sat himself down into one of the chairs nearby. Shaking the smoke still rising from his hands away, he looked up to face her.

"Still using my first name? Was bad enough when you tried to call me fucking 'Kacchan.' That wimpy little bastard still calls me that nickname from when we were little stupid kids."

"Well… You still call him Deku."

The mere mention of Izuku's nickname seemed to cause Katsuki a certain degree of anger and sadness. His gaze instantly left Uraraka's to find its way to the floor, his hands trembling, leaving the young girl unsure if he was about to break down into tears, or unleash a new round of explosions or not.

Though unpredictable and impulsive, Katsuki otherwise made it hard to tell what it was he was thinking. He rarely displayed much emotion outside of anger, and though he had a softer side, something only Izuku and Uraraka had ever seen him show, he kept it close to himself. He wasn't great at conveying the way he felt and what he thought without it being masked in some sort of fit of anger. It was a defensive mechanism, really.

He acted hardened on the outside, but really, he was as soft as anyone else internally. Though she knew this, Uraraka knew that this wasn't a conversation she could allow him to just slide out of.

"About Deku's Quirk – "

"What more is there to fucking say about Deku's fucking Quirk?!" Snapped the blonde teenager, his head snapping right to look Uraraka in the eyes.

"You can act tough, but it's okay to say that you're worried about him." She responded with a slightly happier tone that she honestly did feel on the inside. She took the seat next to the angry boy, and sighed lightly to herself. "I mean, it's kinda cool, isn't it? I mean, Deku'll get to go to school with us. That'll be fun, right?"

"I don't remember the last time having a damn Quirk was fun, Ochako, do you? He'll be lucky if his mother doesn't throw him out of the damn apartment."

"His mother's nicer than that, she won't do something so – "

"The fuck do you know about it? You're the only fucking person in that damn room who didn't get screwed the fuck over by their family for having a Quirk! Yours still actually give a shit about you!" growling out of sheer anger was all Katsuki was doing right now. Uraraka just let him yell, to get out all that built up rage. "My old fucks threw me out when they learned I had a damn Quirk. Racoon eyes has the same fucking shitty situation as me, and Two-hair's got a scar to mark him as a damn freak! You got fucking lucky – Your parents just accepted you. Don't fucking talk to me like you have a clue what being abandoned is like, or how your entire fucking family can look at you differently because of a fucking Quirk."

That was all true, Uraraka thought to herself. The truth was, she was unbelievably lucky. Her family hadn't thrown her aside like so many other Quirked peoples had. They hadn't treated her like she was some sort of mutated freak, nor has they acted like she was a completely different person.

She was still their little girl. They still loved her, and they still treated her the same way they did before. She'd never had to feel the pain that any person who had been left on the sidewalk by their parents would feel, just because they were born with their Quirk. She'd never had to experience the terror of being beaten bloody by loved ones for having the misfortune to be born different. In a certain sense, she was one of the luckiest people on the planet.

Yuuei, for her, was her way of repaying her parents for showing such love towards their child. Her family was always poor, for as long as she could remember. She remembered when she first learned that she was poor when her parents had tucked her in at night without having eaten anything themselves – There just wasn't enough. They had gone without just to make sure she didn't have to. As time had gone on, things had slowly gotten better, but they were still dirt poor.

So Uraraka moved away the first chance she got, so her family wouldn't be burdened with having to look after her any longer. Yuuei might be like a live in comfortable prison to monitor people born with supernatural abilities, but it wasn't going to cost her parents a single thing. She'd be out of their hair, some place relatively safe, and she herself would be able to live comfortably. A bit.

She wasn't going to be poorer than her parents, that much could be said comfortably. It made for a win-win situation.

But she was surrounded by people who hadn't been born so lucky. Katsuki, Todoroki, her friend Tsuyu back at the dorms… None of them had the same fortune that she had. They'd all gotten the short end of the sticks, and been subjected to brutal treatment at the hands of the people who were supposed to love and care for them. All because of something that they couldn't control.

No wonder Katsuki was so upset.

"…I know I'm lucky." She said, nodding her head as she spoke, and looking straight ahead, not directly at Katsuki anymore. "I get that. My parents were… Just great to me when it came to my Quirk. Especially… Compared to everyone else's. Everyone had to deal with some awful things because of their Quirks… But I still had a roof over my head. I still got a place to live and food. I still have a family."

Instead of ranting and yelling, the spiky haired boy listened to his brunette friend.

"You got some of the worst of it I've heard of. Todoroki got it bad, but he was able to deal with it a lot easier. You… Took it pretty hard. So…You're worried that Deku is going to get the bad treatment, aren't you?"

Shifting his gaze toward, like Uraraka's was, Katsuki just sighed. "That moron… He thinks he knows everything about how Quirked people get treated, but he doesn't know a damn thing. He doesn't get how it feels to see all your friends turn around and spit at you."

"But he stuck with you." The Zero-Gravity Quirk user reminded him, putting her hand on his shoulder as a sign of understanding and gentle care. "He stuck with all of the Quirked…. Even though he got himself alienated by those same people."

Katsuki didn't say anything.

"…Don't you think that maybe we should stick with him, if he did that for us?"

After a few moments of silence, the Quirked boy calmed himself down. He let out one final sigh, before he stood up. "…Fucking hell, I hate you when you make good points."


	5. The Quirked Or Quirkless Student

There weren't a large number of people that Mina knew who actively practiced at using their Quirks. As they were in the world, a Quirk was something of shame that was to be hidden for as long as viably possible. Being discovered with a Quirk was grounds for facing discrimination for the remainder of your entire life.

People like Mina couldn't hide from this sort of treatment. Her Quirk gave her a bizarre appearance that didn't fit in with what the rest of the world looked like. Her pink skin, black eyes and horns made her stand out like a fire in a forest. It was impossible to hide her Quirked origins, and it left her being one of the more vulnerable people that existed on the planet. The rest of the world would always look at her like she was some kind of freak of nature. Like a mutant that should have been put down years ago. People hated her for merely even being alive.

Still, Mina didn't bother training her Quirk all that much. She didn't see a purpose in refining her ability to secrete acid. At the end of the day, that ability was what had gotten her thrown out of her home, and treated like dirt since the day her skin first turned pink. She didn't particularly like her Quirk, nor did she like the fact that Quirks even existed in this world.

She looked like a freak… She was a freak. She didn't think about it often, and most of the time, she reminded herself that she just didn't care what the Quirkless thought of her… But in truth, she did want to live a normal life. She did want to be able to go to a regular school and be a regular person. At no point did she ever desire to have a Quirk. If she could get rid of her Quirk… She probably would.

As much as she wanted it to be, she knew that wasn't an option. And the world wasn't going to bend to what she wanted. No one really had the power to alter the world to their whims, or to affect so many people that the world would just change in accordance to what someone wanted it to become.

But Izuku… He was trying to make that happen.

He had accepted a Quirk of his own volition, and with it, he had accepted the fate that he was going to suffer because of having one. All to be able to stand by the Quirked people of the world… Not just as an ally, but as a Qurked himself. He'd mentioned the various ideas that he'd had that he could use to make this work, from helping the Quirked and Quirkless to understand one another, to revealing his Quirkless origins and showing how he, a confessed outsider, was able to interact with the Quirked. He was optimistic about things, which was a stark contrast to herself and Katsuki.

Mina would have slapped him if she wasn't so taken aback by his dedication to helping people. The self-sacrifice that he displayed just to be able to stand by the Quirked… There weren't a lot of words that she could say that would do justice to how that made her feel.

He was like a Hero to her. As cheesy as the line sounded, Mina hadn't ever met someone who stood by the Quirked as much in her entire life. Not even a large number of the Quirked wanted anything to do with other people with Quirks, shunning them as a Quirkless would do to any other Quirked individual. Like they were trying to blend into society as the expense of other people like them… They were the kinds of people Mina hated the most.

The media and the world revolved around the idea that having a Quirk made you a dangerous freak that needed to be detained and observed, like some sort of hyper-intelligent ape. In response, extremist Quirked groups has emerged, proclaiming themselves as the next stage in Human evolution, and fighting back against the oppressive way that people lived. Terrorists, they were labelled as by the Quirkless. Tokyo was a centrepiece of violence in this regard. That in turn, made the anti-Quirk sentiment stronger, which made opposition to Yuuei even being opened in the first place even stronger.

In short, the entire situation was a total mess.

But in the face of all of this… Izuku seemed to be to raining to use his Quirk more.

It had been two days since he had accepted the One For All Quirk, and his body was still getting used to the actual changes that came with the power he had taken. Toshinori-sensei had explained that before he'd be able to fully realize the changes that his body had gone through, he'd need a short period of time to allow his body to adapt to the Quirk. In the case of this power, it meant he had to make sure his physical fitness was fine-tuned, lest he wanted to risk his arms and limbs flying off in various directions…

Okay, so he had a pretty good reason for training his Quirk, Mina would admit it.

But still, he seemed to have a particular reason for wanting to refine his Quirk to a point where he could use it freely. She'd never seen someone trying to tune a Quirk so carefully in her entire life. Whenever she asked, his response was always the same. He didn't want his limbs to fly off. And while that was a reasonable excuse…

Something about it didn't sit well with the pink girl.

* * *

To give credit to Izuku's mother, she handled the news that her son now possessed a Quirk rather well. While she had cried a mountains worth of tears and used up just as many tissues, she hadn't thrown out the poor boy, but accepted him, Quirk or no Quirk. Frankly, it was heart-warming to see a mother still show such affection for her Quirked son. So many times Mina had seen familial ties severed because of a Quirk that someone had no control of, herself included.

So seeing a mother still welcome her son with a Quirk that they had willingly chosen to be given was a refreshing sight as any to see. Of course, she had wept at the loss of the life Izuku now could never have, one freed from the discrimination that he was now subjecting himself to. The one that he had chosen for himself, and the one that was going to treat him as though he were a criminal for his mere existence.

She wouldn't abandon him though. His mother expressed an odd sort of pride in her son for being so true to his beliefs, and for pursuing what it was that he truly believed in. For showing such loyalty towards his friends… As painful as it was for her to accept that her son was now Quirked, she was brought with equal parts joy to know that her son chose this path for himself out of a sense of true dedication to the people he had spent his life defending.

Katsuki however, had chastised Izuku for hours on end, but he'd eventually just dropped the subject entirely. Mina didn't know the boy well enough to tell if that was his way of apologizing and accepting Izuku's choice, or if that was his seeking peace because he had nowhere else to go until he moved into the dorms. He still seemed royally pissed off, but then again, Katsuki always seemed upset about something.

After that, a few days had passed for them, and they had been spent getting ready to move into the dorms of the Yuuei campus. Mina didn't have much too even take with her on account of her living with basically no possession for close to a year, so she'd helped Izuku pack up what little he intended to take. Katsuki just refused her help, one step short of chasing her out of the room with explosions. So instead, she'd spent most of the time helping out Izuku.

His collection of belongings was fairly limited, and almost predictable to a certain extent. Every item he had chosen to take had something to do with either his personality, interests, or just something about him. For example, He was taking a large number of books, which was corresponding with his intelligence and how he valued his mental fortitude over his physical prowess. And a few entertainment books and comics, because he was in fact, a massive nerd. On the flip side, he was also taking a few pieces of muscle building gear, including dumbbells and grip boosters, which went alongside his toned physique… Plus his Quirk, and the requirements to keep in tip top condition to help mould the Quirk so it would better suit his body.

Speaking of his body, Mina remembered back to the time she had spent in the school, alongside the half-cold-Half-Hot student there, and how she'd been told about the scar Izuku had alongside his arm. Though she'd seem it only briefly, and know where it was, she'd never really gotten a clear look at it, and it was something that she was morbidly interested in seeing.

"Hey, Midoriya?" The Acid Quirk using girl asked casually, while moving a box filled with some of his belongings to the side of the room. There were another number of things that she wanted to ask him, but the burn was the number one thing that she wanted to know about.

"Yeah, Ashido? What's wrong?" The black haired boy responded, sleepily. He was exhausted after another day or trying to better gain control of his Quirk, and frankly, he was looking forward to crawling underneath the covers of his duvet and never getting back up out of them.

"D'ya reckon our rooms will get placed close together when we move into Yuuei tomorrow?"

"I… Suppose it's possible."

"That'd be fun, don't'cha think?" A short silence followed, and for a brief moment, Mina thought that Izuku had fallen asleep from exhaustion. When she realized that he was still awake, she continued on. "You… You've done a lot for me, y'know."

"Huh?"

"Yeah. You protected me when I was getting attacked by that trio of Quirk hating guys… You took me in, and you helped me get applied at Yuuei… I mean… You… You didn't have to do any of that, y'know. Especially not for a person that you didn't even know all that well…. That you still don't know all that well."

"I just… Did what I thought was the right thing. And helping you…. That was the right thing to do. You hadn't done anything wrong to anyone… So I helped you. You were innocent in that situation… That's reason enough to help you."

Mina smiled softly towards him as he spoke. "But there aren't a lot of Quirkless people who would say that. There are a lot of Quirkless people who'd think you're crazy for protecting people like me and Bakugou… And Todoroki."

The mention of the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user reminded Izuku of an action that Mina had taken before Katsuki's kidnapping, and he already knew what Mina was going to ask next. Anyone he'd ever met who learned about it asked the same question. It hadn't been mentioned since the kidnapping, but it had clearly been on her mind ever since she'd caught a glimpse of it. The burn wasn't something Izuku was particularly fond of, or liked to show off at all. It had happened in a total accidental way, and Todoroki felt shame about the incident.

It didn't seem right to go around displaying a wound that caused his friend shame.

She looked over at him, like there was pity in her eyes. But it was soft too, like she was trying to be tender, and not to upset him the best that she could do. Knowing very little about if the scar was something he was ashamed of, or self-conscious about, or if it was something he liked to forget about.

But she still wanted to look at it. She wanted to see just how bad it was. How much pain Izuku had been subjected to… How much he had taken, but still remained by the Quirked people's side.

"… Can I see the scar?"

Izuku hesitated for a moment, even though he knew that the question had been coming. He'd seen it coming a mile away. Again, it wasn't something that he was unused to, but he never felt comfortable showing it to other people, not even his mother, or Katsuki. He felt it just wouldn't be right…

Yet there was a kindness in the words Mina was saying. Despite her bold actions when she'd first learned about the injury, she'd been incredibly respectful of it since then, and it was clear, Izuku knew, that she wasn't saying or asking any of this to make him feel uncomfortable. That wasn't the kind of person that she was.

What was it about her that made him feel easy, at peace? On reflection, it was probably how she was just so… Refreshingly upbeat and positive about things, despite the bleak situations they found themselves in. Of course, internally, she had to suffer as much as anyone of them would do. She had to miss her family and friends back at her original home, but she was still able to, at least on the outside, put on a positive smile and cheer everyone on. In this sorry world… That went a long, long way.

And Izuku couldn't even begin to express how much he appreciated that. The world was dark enough, so a shining light shone far brighter. Even despite her Quirk…

For a short while, Izuku looked her in the eyes. In spite of the blackness her sclera had, they seemed lighter than when he'd first met her. He'd grown fond of her, despite the short time that they had known one another for. He trusted her very much, enough to give her the benefit of the doubt in a mixture of different situations. There wasn't any doubt she had held her own prejudices, against the Quirkless for the life she'd lived…

But she'd been able to overcome that so quickly. All she'd needed was to be shown a kindness. Just one kindness was all it took for her to realize that not every Quirkless person had it out for her… It said a lot about her…

Hesitant at first, Izuku reached for his right sleeve, considering backing out before he actually went along with doing this. He rolled up the sleeve right up to his shoulder, to reveal the darkened patch of skin that enwrapped his entire bicep.

It was a minor third degree burn, and at the time, it had hurt like holy hell. Now, it stung when it was touched, if only just a little bit. Dealing with that pain had become Izuku was used to, and now he barely even registered it when he was doing trivial actions like changing clothes or doing reps with his weights. The darkened patch of skin covered most of his muscle, and went around his arm towards his tricep, just short of going to meet itself the full way round, leaving a small patch of pale skin on the back of his arm.

Third degree, which meant that this wasn't going to go away. This burn would remain with him until the day he died. It would forever mark his arm, and it was something he was going to have to learn to live with. A permeant reminder of the dangerous side of Quirks.

"Holy…" Mina looked at the mark Izuku wore, not sure if she felt sadness or pride more in the poor boy. The mark looked grotesque, ugly… Painful, and all sorts of words used to describe horrible things… But in this case…. It wasn't something horrible, or tragic.

It was…. Beautiful, in a sense. So gently that Izuku could barely even feel her, Mina reached out and gently ran her fingers along the lines where the burn met the paler skin of the young boy. While his muscles were there, tough and hard and refined, she took closer note to how the scar ran along his arm, gently following along the edges. Eventually, she ran her digits along the actual burn itself. His skin was less smooth there, bits of dried and hardened skin jutting out in places. With some physical therapy and surgery, he would probably be able to get his skin back to being smooth as silk within a few months.

Why he hadn't done that already… That didn't make as much sense to the Quirked girl. Still, to Mina, it was something to behold. Like birthmark, in a way. He showed so much dedication to protecting the people who had done this to him… It showed just how far he was willing to go to help the people he cared about.

She pressed onto the mark just a tiny bit more gently, wanting to etch how it appeared and how it felt into her memory. It was beautiful to think about it like that. So many used their wounds to justify hatred against the Quirked…

Izuku used his to remind himself why the Quirked needed his help.

"Ah." Izuku hissed at the motion, though he didn't move his arm away from the pink skinned girl.

"Sorry!" She quickly apologised, looking up at him with a look of clear regret. "Did… That hurt?"

"N-No, it… Just stings a bit. I'm… Used to the pain now." He found his face going just a bit darker in colouration at the gentle voice and actions that Mina was displaying. Her skin was smooth, and almost burning to the touch, but it wasn't unpleasant in any way. Although his sense of touch was a bit jarred and dysfunctional on his bicep, her contact with him was very clear to the boy's dulled sense.

Lots of people recoiled whenever they saw the burn mark, followed by rapid apologies and condolences that it had ever happened to him. Some of the few Quirkless people who had seen it had then gone on to speak poorly about the Quirked, and Izuku had abruptly ended the conversation there, his beliefs overriding his usually awkward nature for the need to take a personal stand against that sort of attitude.

Mina was different though. She'd been one of the first people, Quirked or not, to not flinch at the sight of it. Rather, she'd almost become enamoured by it, which to some would seem creepy almost. Indeed, her fascination with it did alarm Izuku to an extent, and he probably would have become very concerned with Mina's mental stability if she hadn't spoken up just a second later.

"…You're gonna call me a freak for this… But it's beautiful."

"H-Huh?!"

"Todoroki did this to you, and you had every right to punch him in his good eye and let the police do whatever they wanted to him… You must have been in pain back then too. There's no way you stood there and just took this… And… You still helped him. You didn't let him take the fall, even though he did deserve it back then… And you still helped him. No one I know would have done that…. Excluding you." Mina looked up at him and smiled gently, a small lilac colour appearing on her cheeks as she softly spoke. "I think that it's beautiful because of that."

Heart race still increasing, Izuku just looked back at the black eyes that were looking to meet his, finding himself unable to look away, even though every instinct that he had was yelling at him to do so. It almost felt like her eyes had some sort of magnetic attraction that compelled him to keep looking into them, almost like not doing so would not only be an insult to her… But actually painful to do.

Beautiful… That was certainly a new word that he'd never heard used to describe his burn.

Looking at the boy who truly was a hero to her, Mina felt something inside her chest that she wasn't able to really explain, or something that she was really capable of even displaying naturally. Her lips twitched lightly, and she felt a yearning. The same sort of yearning that led her to make impulsive actions that she would either deeply regret and then ponder over later in the day, or the ones that would give her the biggest rush, that she would celebrate when no one else was around.

She wanted to kiss Izuku.

The impulse hit her like a hammer, and it certainly hadn't been expected, not by Mina of all people. The idea felt absolutely insane – She had collectively known him maybe a week or so, yet she'd already found herself feeling closer to him than she'd ever felt to anyone else before in her entire life. And as for why…

Well, that was surprisingly easy to explain, when she thought about it.

He was nice, for starters. For someone who was Quirked, finding someone who was perfectly fine with being nice to someone like her was a rarity in itself. She'd never met someone who was so happy to be kind to someone like her. Plus, he had no problem with people who had Quirks, which again, was rare. He had a Quirked best friend, and basically existed to help out the Quirked. He'd made it his mission… she didn't know anyone who was Quirkless who was like that.

And he accepted it. He accepted a Quirk, willingly giving up the life he had to be able to continue helping the Quirked.

How many people like that existed in this world? How many people could say that someone like that was their friend?

Depressingly few… And yet, here one was. A massive nerd who fought for the Quirked population, helped them in whatever way he could, and was now putting himself on the frontlines of the Quirked-Quirkless front, facing discrimination and prejudice at all points, possibly from both sides now, all because he wanted to stand by his friends, all of whom had Quirks. He was that prepared, that dedicated, that willing to throw himself into the fray, that he was willing to give up the life that he had lead up until that point…

How couldn't Mina have grown to admire him?

They were already close, so if he wanted to actually do this, she wouldn't even really have to move much. He was barely a head away from hers, only about maybe three or four inches. He was also only just one or two inches taller than her, even while they were sat down, so she wouldn't need to account for height much at all. She kept looking him in the eyes, green, like the highlights in his hair. A rare trait, genetically speaking. Her own blush became more obvious, as did his own, her face turning lilac while his turned red. He didn't move away though, nor did he look away. He returned her gaze, comforting as it was unsettling.

There was just something about him…

Once her impulse finally kicked in, Mina leaned slightly, slowly, towards him, to gauge the response that he would have, if any. His eyes seemed to widen up that slightest bit, but he didn't outright push away, reject her, or much of anything else. He seemed to be in surprise that Mina was doing what he thought that she was doing, but he didn't reject it in any way.

So mina leaned in just that bit further…

"Deku!"

At what could possibly have been the worst time possible, Katsuki's loud, commanding voice suddenly echoed throughout the apartment building, calling for the black haired boy, who instantly shot up like an elastic band, a huge blush covering his face as he realized what had been about to happen. He looked over at Mina, doing little for his scarlet face, before he made his way over to the door, shakily reaching for the door handle, and opening the door, before Katsuki kicked it down, or blew it up.

"K-Kacchan? What's – What's wrong?" Izuku's voice was noticeably shakier, and his stutter was there in force. His dark red face clearly wasn't doing anything to hide the fact that something, whatever it was, had just happened in the room. It didn't go unnoticed.

Glancing around the room, Katsuki shoved his hands into his slackened jeans. Before turning to his best friend with a suspicious look. "The hell's wrong with you?" Looking towards Mina, and noticing her own face a darker shade than it normally was, he repeated his question to her. "The hell's wrong with _you_?"

"Huh? Nothing?" To her credit, Mina was a very good actor when it came to this kind of thing, and nonchalantly brushed off the suspicious Explosion Quirk user. Acting innocent had become a very necessary skill to survive In Japan being Quirked. And Mina was very good at it.

"Wh-What do you need, Kacchan?" Izuku questioned again, less good at acting innocent than Mina was, by a country mile.

Though with him at least, Katsuki decided to drop the subject entirely in favour of what it was that he had originally come in the room for. "Whatever. Your mother wants you. Something about a last supper or some shit."

"O-Oh." He failed at hiding his fluster immensely, turning to Mina and speaking with even more clear embarrassment. His hands seemed to be doing some sort of weird gestures, his fingers turned rigid, and he kept averting his eyes from Mina's. "W-W-We'll talk later, a-alright – A-Ashido?"

Mina just giggled lightly. "Okay, Midori."

Practically feeling the glare that Katsuki was burning into the back of his head, Izuku excused himself, asking multiple questions as to when the hell his name had suddenly become Midori, as opposed to Midoriya. As soon as he left, Mina allowed herself to laugh a bit more openly at his reactions, smiling at nothing in particular.

He'd reacted to his newly bestowed nickname roughly about as well as she'd expected him to.

" _Midori_?" Katsuki raised an eyebrow, and leaned against the door frame. "You're calling him Midori now?" He couldn't decide on a look between confusion, amusement, and general irritation, all mixed into one, which left him with a surprisingly neutral looking expression. "If you're gonna flirt with the fucking guy, do me a favour, and keep that shit away from me. I don't feel like throwing shit up."

"Don't get jealous, Baku-chan." Teased the pink girl with a huge grin on her face.

"Call me 'Baku-Chan' again, and I'll throw you out a window."

"No more Baku-Chan, got it!"

"Don't fuckin' test me."

She'd learned that Katsuki was all talk when it came to this sort of thing. Despite his fury, he was a genuinely good guy who did care about his friends and the people close to him. He'd fight like hell for them, and he didn't care who thought he was a bad guy because of it. Mina did admire that about Katsuki, that he was so willing to use his Quirk to defend the people close to him, while many would hide their Quirks, even in the face of loved ones being put into danger.

Katsuki just didn't give a damn. That was admirable, if nothing else about him was.

"That idiot…" He suddenly sighed, looking down the corridor to look at his friend and his mother. He was currently being teased by his mother for his blush, though she didn't know the reasons for it. "He's thrown away his life for us, you know."

"Yeah…" Mina nodded. "It's… Kind of cool when you think about it though. I mean, do you know anyone else who'd be so willing to do that for their friends?"

"Cool?" The red eyed boy laughed, and stepped out of the room. "We'll see how cool it is when a Quirkless runt shows up in a high school for the Quirked."

* * *

Since all the belongings that the group were moving into the Yuuei dorms were small enough to be fit into one or two suitcases per person, there was no big move, filled with boxes and a mover truck, or even a pickup truck. Not even a car. The group had made their way there, along with Izuku's mother, who was going to see them off, by foot. Mina normally would protest this, but in a group, there wasn't a problem. People kept their distance from her, and the ones that didn't dared do nothing to her.

The ones that were stupid enough to try, Katsuki scared away with an explosion.

Yuuei was located just on the outskirts of Tokyo, so it took one subway ride and a short walk to reach. It was the very first time that Izuku's mother had ever seen the huge building for the Quirked, and was amazed by the sheer size of it, as well as the ginormous walls that would be there to keep the students safe.

At least, that was what Izuku had told her they were for. He got a dirty look from Katsuki for keeping his mother in the dark as to just what this place was and what to expect. Izuku just hadn't been able to bring himself to do so. Inko knew enough about the school and the dangers to expect… But she didn't need to know the extent of that danger.

The closer they walked towards the entrance, the more and more Quirked students they saw making their way towards the school, some with very apparent abnormalities that none of them could help but stare at. As they joined the line for inspection, they took the time to observe just a few of them.

A tall student with six arms, all connected by a thin layer of skin. Some students covered completely in fur. One with what looked like metal for hair. A student with a green Mohawk, and lizard like skin, with sharp mandibles on either side of his skull. One person who was literally invisible – As in, it looked like that person was just a floating collection of clothing, all perfectly proportioned for a girl of medium height. That one in particular was one that Mina could barely get her head around.

"There's a lot of odd looking people here… Are you sure you're going to be okay here, Izuku?" Inko questioned, placing her hands comfortingly on her son's shoulder, though this was mostly for herself, and not for her son. Despite the fact that she had no issues with Quirked people, seeing so many in such a dense location, and the knowledge that her son as going to be attending classes here, with a self-destructive Quirk of his own…

It didn't help her worries.

"I'll be fine, Mom." Izuku assured his mother calmly, looking up to smile at her. "Quirked people aren't dangerous. Besides, I've got Kacchan, Ashido, Uraraka and Todoroki here in case things get really bad!"

"I don't remember signing up to drag your runt ass everywhere." Katsuki muttered under his breath, amusing Mina.

After a few moments of waiting, during which everyone got their forums ready to hand out to the people who were on security detail, the group reached the front of the line. The two people who were handling the admission of the students were evidentially Quirkless, as they were in full combat gear and armed with tasers, in case anyone dangerous tried anything, or a Quirked student tried to pick a fight with them. Black, padded body armour, like a SWAT team for dealing with Quirks.

Izuku never felt more threatened than when he was dealing with prejudicial Quirkless people. It was an odd juxtaposition for the formerly Quirkless boy to feel. With the Quirked, he knew what to expect. He knew what they felt, and where their opinions most likely laid. The Quirkless though, as the majority in the world, were far more unpredictable in their efforts to crush the Quirked minority. Far more prejudicial.

It was impossible to tell when they were going to snap and attack out of their own hatred, rather than their actual orders.

"Are these three with you, ma'am?" One of the faceless guards asked, questioning Inko.

"That's right." She nodded. She had been the one to sign off all the official forms for each of them, since Mina and Katsuki had no parents they could ask to sign for them. Inko had happily done those for the children at their request. "It's under Midoriya Inko."

Mina could swear that one of the guards was glaring at here underneath the debris masks that they were wearing. It wouldn't take much for her to melt such a thing with her acid if it came down to it, but for some reason, not being able to see the persons face made her feel uneasy. Like she was being watched by some sort of unseen force that could take her out in an instant. It was unsettling.

One by one, the students made their way through the checkpoint, a rather bulky hunk of metal about a meter long. This hadn't been in place a week ago, when Mina had come along with Izuku to sign her up for classes at the school, so it was a recent addition to the building. At the other side of it, were the vast open grounds that the school possessed.

"Alright, Bakugou Katsuki." One of the guards said, indicating that Katsuki was to step forward, which he did. "Just walk to the other side of the wall, no funny faces, or even trying to activate your Quirk. This is all so we can get you a student ID printed. The hall here takes your picture from all directions, so we can get a good profile on you, and print your face onto an ID card."

Without a word, Katsuki made his way casually to the other side of the wall, glancing around as he did so. This was all too suspicious for the Explosion Quirk holder, who felt irrationally compelled to activate his Quirk, were it not for the tasers that he would no doubt receive to the base of the spine. He came to the same conclusion that Izuku and Mina both did at the same time.

That this was way, way, _way_ too overkill for something as trivial as taking photos for a student ID card. It had some other function.

"Okay, clear." The guard said, using a machine to process Katsuki's file, it forever disappearing into some sort of insert slot. "Ashido Mina next, same drill."

The pink skinned girl quickly made her way through, and again, nothing happened. This was confusing. Someone with features like Mina, it would be expected that the machine, whatever its function, would recognise her and activate. Mina was stumped.

Unless…

Sending Mina's file down the same way, the same guard disinterestedly called out the final name, not even bothering to look up from what he was absent mindedly doing. "Finally, Midoriya Izuku."

Izuku took a few steps after he had handed in his file, making his way towards his friends who were waiting for him on the other wise. For just being a meter long, it felt like an entire corridor between them. When he hit the midway mark, he suddenly found himself cut off from them.

A gate had slammed down rapidly, blocking him from proceeding any further, and a loud alarm, clear as day, began to call out. A blinding red light forced Izuku to look away, or give himself eye pains, whichever he preferred. He shielded his eyes as best he could, and turned his back to the light, facing the way he had just come in.

"What the hell?" One guard suddenly shot upright, like he'd just sat on a pin on his chair. He leaned into his computer screen as he processed the information that was making itself known. He then looked up at Izuku, and then back to his file, and back to Izuku, like he was playing spot the difference. "The Toe Test just found the kid Quirkless!"

Were it not for the fact that the situation right now wasn't the best place for it, Izuku would have slapped himself for being so ridiculously stupid as to forget about the Toe Test. Of course this was for the Toe Test, that made perfect sense!

Now that the link between the absence of an extra joint in the pinkie toe and the development of Quirks, X-Ray based machines had been implemented in various areas of interests, and were being developed for more practical and commonly visited areas, such as stores and cinemas and the likes, that would automatically detect the number of joints that a person had in their small toe, and then react in a certain way if the person in question had an additional joint or not. The devices became known as Toe Testers.

It was a Toe Tester that had outed Katsuki as being Quirked back in middle school. Years of careful hiding and excuses, gone in an instant as Izuku had been totally helpless to do anything to stop the examination that would rat out Katsuki's Quirked existence to his classmates.

Now the same thing had happened to him, only, since his Quirk was bestowed, and not natural, he still had the additional joint. Which, on any scanner, would identify him as being totally Quirkless. And this particular scanner, it turned out, was set to detect Quirkless people.

Quirked and Quirkless people were to be kept separate, after all, under order of the government.

"Quirkless? But he's got the forms and everything."

"They weren't accepting Quirkless students though! The government banned it!" The guard then turned to look at Izuku, and held up his file so it could clearly be seen. Behind him, a large gathering of Quirked students was forming, peeking over the corners and some just openly nosying in, to see what was going on. "Where did you get these forms, kid?"

"I-I got them from Toshinori Yagi-sensei! He's the Headmaster here!" Izuku answered quickly and clearly. It felt bizarre to say, but he followed up with, "I-I'm not Quirkless!"

"Sure you aren't." One of the guards muttered, while reaching for a phone. "Why you'd want to attend a school with one of these freaks is beyond me. You really think that this was gonna work?"

"I'm not lying!"

"Hey, wait a sec…" The other guard said, with folded arms. "Isn't that the kid who kept sending in applications? The one who kept writing that he was totally Quirkless? Something about bridges between Quirked and Quirkless?"

For a moment, the first guard stopped punching numbers into the phone and took a real, proper look at Izuku. With a blackened screen covering his face, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking or feeling, though Izuku couldn't help but feel like some sort of sneer was involved. He didn't know why it surprised him so much that the guards had seen the applications. They would have needed to, in case there was someone in particular that they needed to identify.

"I thought he looked familiar." The first guard commented, putting the final numbers into the line and hitting the call button. "Quirked my foot. I dunno why you're even trying to get into this place kid, but I'm gonna straighten this out."

For a few seconds, everything fell silent, although when Izuku looked past the guards and his mother, he saw up to thirty pairs of Quirked eyes, all glaring at him like he was the devil himself. Stares of nothing but pure hatred were piercing his very skin, and he could swear that he saw a few people activating their Quirks as a threat of dominance towards him.

These were people who had suffered greatly at the hands of the Quirkless. People who knew, just like him, that this school was just a method to study the Quirked people, but they came anyone, wanting to get away from the Quirkless dominated society that Tokyo and the rest of all of Japan was, to be around people like them. Quirked people, away from all of the prejudice and discrimination that they faced due to the Quirkless and their bigoted ways.

And here was a Quirkless student, thrown in with Quirked people, in what was supposed t be a totally Quirkless free location.

It wasn't like Izuku hadn't expected to get a lot of angry stares when he applied for the school when he was Quirkless. He was fully aware that the vast majority of the Quirked people here would be holding grudges against the Quirkless.

He just hadn't expected the intensity of these glares.

"Hey, yeah, Toshinori." The guard who had picked up the phone finally had gotten through, and was now on the line with the headmaster of the school. "Yeah, we've got a Quirkless kid here trying to enter the school… Yeah, see, the thing is, he's got all the paperwork, and it all looks official…" A small pause. "Yeah, his names Midoriya Izuku." Another small pause, followed by a much louder, more surprised reaction. "Wait, are you kidding me! He's Quirkless, he shouldn't be permitted into the school!...You!... Yes, Understood." The call ended with a growl and the phone being slammed onto the receiver. A few button clicks here and there, and the gate suddenly lifted, revealing a visually relieved Katsuki and Mina. "You're cleared. Get moving."

Letting out a sigh, Izuku and his mother made their way through the tunnel, leaving behind a group of extremely angry Quirked, and two royally pissed of Quirkless people behind.

"Didn't even get past the gate." Katsuki muttered to Mina. "And already he has a target painted on his back."

It worried Mina when she thought about just how right Katsuki was.

"Sorry about that." Izuku apologised, despite nothing of what happened having been his fault. "That was… I should have expected them to have the technology to perform Toe Tests, of course I should have! How else were the going to verify if all of their students had Quirks or not? They – "

"Stop muttering." Mina told him flatly, pointing behind the group, towards Inko.

She had tears in her eyes, though she was trying her best to hide them. Of course she was upset to see her son go off to school on his own. Any mother that loved their children would be sad to see their child leaving home, even if it was just for educational purposes. Even if it was just temporary. Even if it was so they could follow their dreams.

She would miss her son… But these weren't just tears for him.

Parents or relatives weren't allowed to go past the designated area, of which was a very small region just beyond the Toe Testing tunnel, so Inko was going to have to go back through to leave the children to their own devices. They were going to be on their own soon enough.

So this was, at least for now, goodbye.

"You… You'll all look after each other, won't you?" she sniffled, trying her hardest not to burst into tears. She first turned to Katsuki, who didn't look like he was fully sure how to handle the situation that was happening right now. Like he'd forgotten what it looked and felt like for a mother to care about their child. "Katsuki, you'll look after Izuku, won't you? You're strong, and you've got a heart of gold. You – You'll take care of him, right?"

He blinked a few times, before shrugging. "I've been keeping that runt safe for years now. Don't worry, if anyone tries to mess with him, I'll blow them to bits – " Before he'd even managed to finish the sentence, he suddenly found himself in a huge, tight hug from Inko, one that threatened to cut off his oxygen intake, but never quite reached that point. He remained stood there, unmoving for a short while, like his brain was struggling to register exactly what was happening to him. It had been such a long time since he'd ever received some sort of motherly affection from anyone, that he'd totally forgotten what it was, what it felt like.

That he was even capable of receiving it.

But after living with the Midoriya family for so long… Inko practically considered him to be family. She had her spats with him, mostly over his repulsive language, and his violent tendencies, but she loved him like she loved Izuku. He was part of her family, regardless of if he knew it or not.

Smiling, Izuku just watched his mother hold his best friend. There wasn't any need to say anything. "You're a good boy, Katsuki. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, okay?" She added on, releasing him from her hold.

"Uh…. Right…" Katsuki awkwardly responded, folding his arms and turning sideways, to try to hide the blush that was already creeping onto his face.

Next up, Inko looked towards Mina and smiled sweetly, though there were still tears in her eyes. Understandably, since she didn't know Mina as well as she knew Katsuki, and they'd only known one another for about a week , she didn't embrace her like she would a daughter, but she held her hands and look her in her blackened eyes.

"Ashido –"

"It's… It's just Mina, Mrs. Midoriya." Mina said before Inko could carry on. Quickly, she bowed in the respect that Midoriya Inko had very truly earned from her. "Thank you for allowing me to stay with you for so long. I really, really appreciate everything you've done for me."

With little else to say, or many other options available to her, Inko nodded happily, and patted Mina's head. "You're a lovely girl, Mina. Quirk or not, you're a treasure."

It was the first time in practically her entire life since she'd developed her Quirk that Mina had been given any affection like that, putting her in the same boat as Katsuki. Instead, she could only smile and blush happily at the actions, cementing her faith in Inko. One of the kindest people she'd ever met, Quirkless or not. The only other person who came close was Izuku.

And speaking of the previously Qurikless boy, it was time for him to receive the single biggest and tightest hug he had ever received in his entire life. There wasn't even anything in particular that needed to be said to him, since he already had heard everything that his mother would have had to say to him beforehand. Izuku returned the hug, knowing it was going to be the last time he'd get to in a while.

"I'm so very proud of you, Izuku." His mother whispered to him. She didn't need to say anything more than that. "So very, very proud of you. Stay out of trouble, okay? Be safe."

"I will." Izuku promised.

After that, and after fighting back many tears, Inko was escorted out of the school, leaving Katsuki, Izuku and Mina on their own.

In the High School belonging to the Quirked.

* * *

"Okay, our dorm rooms are all apparently in Heights Alliance, building 1-A…"

"Oh, awesome!" Mina did a little jump at the news, her fists pumping up into the air as she skipped. "We're all in the same dorm house!"

"Chill your fucking shit, woman!" Katsuki yelled as he looked at the papers again. "Says here we've been assigned onto the same floor since we know each other. We need to take our shit, find our rooms and settle in before tomorrow. Classes start at Nine AM tomorrow. That'll all be introductory shit, like finding names, and showing off Quirks."

Heights Alliance, as it turned out, was one of the same buildings Todoroki had shown Mina, a four story building with rooms for up to twenty students, all furnished with luxurious stationary so that people wouldn't get too upset at essentially being willing prisoners. With enough room and space for comfortable living between all twenty students, it promised to be a cosy building with a shared community, where classmates would be like neighbours, and everyone would have plenty of opportunities to get to know each other well.

Inside though, it was quite another story.

When the three students made their way into the building, and into an open space on their way to the staircase, they found a large gathering of students, talking and introducing themselves to one another.

All eyes instantly fell on Izuku, and it became painfully clear why.

He was the Quirkless student that they had heard about.


	6. Quirkless Bastard

"You Quirkless bastard!"

Barely even a minute after stepping into the Alliance Heights building, and Izuku was being attacked by one of the Quirked students there. News spread fast around people who had Quirks, some of whom Izuku remembered seeing stood in the line while he was being scanned. There was no doubt that they had mentioned and pointed out exactly who the supposedly Quirkless student was.

There was speed and aggression to this strike, with clear motivation to break through Izuku's skull if the user could get away with it. This wasn't someone who was going to mess around. They were serious about launching the strike, someone who had suffered greatly at the hands of the Quirkless, who had anger bubbling inside them for years.

While it all happened in a second, Izuku could see every single thing that happened like it was all occurring in slow motion. The person who was throwing the punch had revealed a set of sharpened teeth as he'd yelled, and thrown a reverse punch from his right hand, and it moved with such speed it was a total blur to anyone who hadn't been expecting it. As it came closer towards him, the skin around the fist suddenly sharpened, and became hard, jagged, like the surface of a rock.

No one who hadn't been expecting this attack would have been able to react. Even with someone like Mina's reflexes, without prior knowledge, evasion would have been inevitable.

So it said a lot when Katsuki was the only one to react when the punch was thrown.

He'd reacted instantly, like he'd been expecting this to happen for weeks now. He probably had been, Izuku knew. His cynical nature had left him totally prepared for this sort of attack, expecting the very worst outcome, which as it turned out, was the outcome that came true. First came a left redirect, Katsuki using his left hand to push the punch away from its mark, causing it to narrowly miss Izuku's face, just gently scratching the surface of his skin and knocking a few of his hairs aside. Ensuring that the blast wasn't going to injure his friend, Katsuki then activated his Quirk, blasting the red haired boys entire arm far away from Izuku as the energy from the explosion was transferred into the Quirked boy's rock solid arm, throwing him off balance and vulnerable to a real attack..

Up next came Katsuki's real strike – His trademark right hook. His palm flat and open as his fingers made a claw gesture, Katsuki slammed his open hand into the face of the attacker with force, coming into contact with skin that felt like a rocks. On instinct, the attacking student leaned away from the clasp the Explosion Quirk user had, unable to get away before the Quirk was activated once again, detonating his palm at point-blank range.

There wasn't even a hint of holding back. The explosion was large yet focused, and the impact shot straight into the other student. The knockback from Katsuki's second attack was huge, sending the student flying back the way he had come, smacking him right into the wall at the opposite ends of the room, after flying past two other students who hadn't even had time to process that a person was being blown towards them.

The person themselves didn't seem to exactly be hurt much by the blonde boy's attacks, but he certainly was surprised by Katsuki's reflexes and by his Quirk. Probably even more so that a Quirked student was defending the rumoured Quirkless student. A lot of stuff just happened that the Quirked attacker didn't like or understand.

From down the length of his arm, Katsuki glared towards the attacker from between his fingers, smoke from using his powers still smouldering from his palms. His red eyes met the students equally red ones, with a very evident anger to them. He then spoke with such blunt annoyance and hate that it sent Goosebumps running down Mina's spine. "If you fucking dare try that again, I'll blast you into a fucking hole in the ground!"

"K-Kacchan, calm down!" Once he'd recovered from the shock that he'd been hit with once everything caught up to his body, Izuku tried to defuse the situation as quickly and as calmly as he could, pushing on Katsuki's arm to make him lower the limps that were extraordinarily deadly weapons.

"Christ, Bakugou!" Mina's reaction on the other hand was far more vocal, though she didn't disagree with what he'd done. She was more shocked that he'd shown not even a single shred of mercy. If it wasn't for the Quirk that student seemed to have, he could have easily concussed him.

Now on his knees and staring back at the small group with an anger in his eyes, the male student was then aided to his feet by another two separate students, one whom seemed to have a lightning bolt in their hair, and another that had some sort of canisters as opposed to elbows.

"You alright, Kirishima?" The latter asked, apparently on a name-knowing basis with the attacker despite only knowing one another for a short amount of time, or perhaps they'd known one another before arriving. Whatever the reason, it was clear the two were on decent terms, judging by the look of anger that the group was given. "What the hell was that for?!"

If all eyes hadn't been on Izuku and his group before, they certainly were now. If there was one thing that always surprised people, regardless of if they were Quirked or Quirkless, was the fact that Katsuki was more than willing to defend Izuku by using his own Quirk. The fact he was willing to do so without hesitation showed that Katsuki valued Izuku's well-being, despite the two having totally different backgrounds, and one of them not having a Quirk.

Bonds between people that did or didn't have Quirk were rare enough, and very few Quirked people lacked the self-preservation instinct to use their powers to defend their friends. From the day they were born, they got it into their heads that they had to hide their powers for as long as possible, and here was Katsuki showing off his power to protect a Quirkless scumbag within seconds of arriving at the dorms.

With all eyes on Katsuki, some in awe, and some very clearly fearful, he took the opportunity to make himself as clear as he possibly could.

"That's the only fucking warning you're getting." Flatly stated Katsuki, unhampered by Izuku's desperate attempts to get him to calm down and watch his words. "You aren't laying a fucking hand on any of my friends, you got that?"

"So you're a masochist then?" Boldly, the student called Kirishima shot a jab at Katsuki, showing off a row of sharpened teeth that were gritted in anger. "That's the best explanation I've got of why you'd ever defend some Quirkless bastard."

"Keep talking, you red haired asshole." Detonating some of the sweat on his palms, Katsuki demonstrated a small series of explosions – Barely even a sample of what his highly versatile Quirk was capable of. "Keep running your mouth and I'll beat you so bloody you won't even be able to tell your hair and your blood apart."

* * *

Kirishima Ejirou.

According to Todoroki, that was the name of the person who had attacked them. The Half-Cold-Half-Hot had resided with the guy for a few days now, and shared what he knew about him. His Quirk was called Hardening, which let him turn his skin into a rock-solid substance which seemed to give him a lot of durability. It's wasn't particularly flashy like Katsuki's Quirk was, nor was it overly powerful like Todoroki's, or as bizarre as Mina's, but it certainly did it's job. According to Todoroki, Ejirou was also very anti-Quirkless because of his childhood.

Apparently it involved bullets, knives, and a lot of Anti-Quirked people trying to kill him before he was even eight. Two scars were visible around his eyes, one very small, that was supposed to have happened when his Quirk first activated, and a larger one, both around the same eye. He claimed that the scar that ran down the centre of his right eye was from someone who had tried to cut his eye out, and that he'd only been saved thanks to his Quirk hardening his eyelids at the last second. In short, he'd been stupidly lucky and had been smart at the same time, prioritizing the most vulnerable area of his face while sacrificing defence all over the rest of it.

"So he's had a hard time of it, just like everyone here…" Izuku sighed. At the end of all of this, Kirishima was just another victim, wasn't he? Someone who had developed a Quirk despite having had no interest in doing so whatsoever, and now had to live the excuse of an existence that was being Quirked because of it.

"There's a lot of anti-Quirkless sentiment here." Todoroki explained, glancing out the window of Izuku's room to see other students wandering around the place. Many were exploring, or trying to make new friends while they were here. From here, he could even see Kirishima, socializing with the other students. "A lot of people have suffered because of the Quirkless. That's why a lot of them are here. They want to feel safe for once in their lives… Not all of them have considered what this place actually is. That Kirishima guy doesn't seem to be a bad sort. Around other Quirked students, he's a very friendly person. A lot of people in the dorm rooms seem to like him…. It's just you he seems to hate. And any other Quirkless person who shows up"

Izuku nodded gently. While he'd love to explain the truth to Kirishima, about how he willingly accepted a Quirk… He couldn't. He didn't have control over One For All yet. If he demonstrated the dangerous Quirk and got it wrong, he could kill someone, and the best case scenario was him just shattering his bones again, and them a Quirked person coming up and killing him – Both scenario's Izuku was keen to avoid. "I'll keep that in mind. Anyone else I should know about?"

"A couple. Monoma Neito from dorm and Class 1-B isn't exactly the kind of person I'd like to deal with on a regular basis. I think he's crazy if I'm honest." Stated Todoroki. He began going down the list of names in his phone, picking out ones that he felt were of exceptional notice. Having lived in the dorms for a while, he'd been asked to show everyone around, which had given him a good opportunity to take notes on his new classmates. "Tenya Ida. He's sort of… Serious, but I don't think it'll be too hard to get him to go to your way of thinking. He has a Quirkless older brother he looks up to, so that should help, but he says his priority is helping his fellow Quirked students. And… Yaoyarozu Momo. She's convinced that history is going to repeat itself with the Quirked getting thrown into concentration camps. Other than that, she's smart, so you might be able to get through to her."

"Do you have any good news?"

"Kaminari Denki, Jiro Kyouka, and Asui Tsuyu…. They don't seem to have any major problems with Quirkless people as a whole. I'm certain they've suffered just as much as anyone else has… but I don't think they're going to let that dictate their lives. The rest haven't said much about their feelings on the subject."

"I could ask around." Offered Uraraka, sitting in the chair that Izuku's room came provided with. "I'm already on pretty good terms with Asui and Hagakure, and they seem pretty social."

"That'd be really helpful, Uraraka, thanks." Smiled the black haired boy, one of his green highlights running just over his left eye, which he brushed out of the way quickly. "We just need to get an idea for how people think of the Quirkless for now. That should help us figure out a starting place. If we could find an ally in the Class 1-B dorms, that'd help things over there too…."

"Kendou Itsuka would be a good place to start there then." The Zero Gravity Quirk used chimed. "She's cool, and she doesn't hate Quirkless people! I've spoken with her a few times before!"

With another nod, Izuku looked outside his window alongside Todoroki at all the Quirked students outside. Now that he was here, and really starting to plan ahead about making a difference in the world they lived in, in closing the gap between the Quirked and Quirkless people… He almost felt like he was planning some kind of military operation, choosing specific people to target and defect over to his side, getting involved in all sorts of back deals, and keeping tabs on all their classmates….

Part of it felt immoral…. But they needed to start the road to recovery somehow. If they wanted to help put an end to the violence on both sides, then they needed to be prepared to do some things that they weren't going to be proud of. They needed to be ready to do things that they normally wouldn't do, and face the challenges with the knowledge that once they headed down this road, there wasn't any going back.

Which made Izuku question if he really should be the one leading this whole adventure.

"…You know…" He said, solemnly, halting for a moment when he'd started talking. "…You two… You don't have to be a part of this. What we're going to do… It's going to be dangerous. I've been here an hour and already over ten people want to kill me…. And I…. I can't ask you two to get involved in that…. You two have your own lives to get on with…. So… If you want to go, then you can do."

"What're you talking about, Deku?" Uraraka stood up, her small hands wrapped up into tight fists, the determination in her brown eyes showing. There hadn't been even a second of hesitation in her answer. "I want the Quirkless and Quirked to get along as much as you do! My parents are still Quirkless and I wanna help them have an easier life! Even if what we're doing is only going to have a small impact, I wanna help!"

Unable to stop himself, the previously Quirkless boy couldn't help but stifle a small chuckle at his friends response. In truth, he'd expected nothing less from her. She had a personality that was as carefree and cheerful as one could expect from a girl like her. Thinking of others before she thought of herself, and wanting to do whatever she could do to help them out.

For as long as he'd known her, she'd talked about her parents like they were the Gods themselves, and it wasn't hard to see why. They were the only family that Izuku knew of that hadn't disowned, kicked out, or begun to abuse or ignore their child for being Quirked. Granted, he knew only a small number of Quirked people overall, and he went out of his way to help specifically those who needed it. Yet for parents to be so accepting, so loving of their child even despite the public hatred of Quirks, and sharing that burden with their daughter for continuing to raise one…

It was no wonder that Uraraka loved them so much.

When it came to Todoroki…. His reason was far simpler, and less noble.

"You helped me when I needed it." He stated simply. He didn't have any particular other motivation other than that. He no longer hated the Quirkless like he did a year ago. And he had Izuku to thank for that. Izuku had helped him. "So I'm going to help you."

* * *

"Hey, Katsuki – "

"You haven't known me even fucking close to long enough to call me that yet, Racoon Eyes."

As Izuku discussed the matters that he needed to with Todoroki and Uraraka, Katsuki and Mina found themselves in Katsuki's room, waiting for Izuku to finish up. The two friends still trying to realize that they really were at Yuuei now, that this really was what they had to expect from their lives now. That their mission to stop discrimination on both sides had begun...

It was taking some adjusting.

They had remained in silence for a long time, their minds on very different things. Katsuki had his mind set on what had happened this morning against that Kirishima bastard. While he had expected it, he hadn't prepared for it fully by the time it came around. He didn't regret it in the least… but there had been a small, small part of his brain that was hoping that maybe, just maybe, Izuku's dream might have potential to become a reality.

"Alright, fine, Bakugou." Mina corrected herself with a smirk on her face at his reaction. The way he overreacted at some simple stuff, she found it pretty amusing just to piss him off from time to time. "I've got a question I've been kinda curious about."

"Go ahead."

"Why do you wanna help Midori protect Quirkless people?"

"I don't. I want to help people with Quirks have better lives."

"Wouldn't the easiest way to do that be to join one of those Quirk supremacy groups then?" Her comment caused Katsuki to look at her, like she'd just figured out a hole in his logic… Which she had done. "Well, not easiest, but… If you only cared about helping Quirked people, then wouldn't it make more sense if you joined a group specifically to help Quirked people? Instead, you're here, looking out for Midori while he's trying to make peace between both Quirked and Quirkless people?" The abnormal girl tilted her head to one side and raised an eyebrow. "You're kind of a jerk but I can tell that's just the way you are. You don't _just_ want to help Quirked people, do you?"

Katsuki just stared at her.

"So… Why're you here?"

For a short while, Katsuki refused to say anything, returning his glare to the wall, like he was trying to burn right through it using only the power of his brain and willpower. An internal conflict had clearly made its way into his head, leaving him wondering if he should tell her why he was here.

He did have his reasons, she had figured him out there. Despite his friendship with Izuku, he had his own reasons for being here, even though he hated the place with a burning passion. He hadn't explained the reasons why he'd chosen to stay close to Izuku to anyone, only the aforementioned previously Quirkless activist knowing the reasons why. And it was the same reasons why Katsuki trusted very few people these days, particularly ones that he barely even knew, of which Mina fell firmly into the category of. He'd known her for only just over a week, not even close to long enough to entrust her with the knowledge of why he was here.

At the same time, Izuku clearly trusted her. Despite knowing one another for a small amount of time, the two had cemented a very deep and trusting friendship. One which Katsuki could already feel the subtext regarding, but shook the thought out of his head, deciding that those two could figure out whatever they felt for one another on their own. Regardless, Izuku clearly had a lot of faith in Mina, irrelevant of their limited time together. In turn, Mina had vowed to help Izuku in his dream to create a world in which the Quirked and Quirkless could live in harmony together.

So why not tell her? She'd probably figure it out sooner or later…

"Ah, fuck it." Katsuki sighed, looking back over towards Mina. "You didn't go to school, did you? Not a public one, anyway. You had the whole pink skin and black eyes thing since you were young, right?"

"Yeah." Nodded the pink girl, glancing towards her pigmented skin. "I got sent to one of those 'Controlled Environment' schools." Just the memories of that place made her shudder. While she was still living with her parents, fearful of her as they were, controlled Environment schools were places where Quirked pupils would be heavily monitored, and all the teachers were armed with Tasers that they were far too liberal about using. This all existed just after Quirks became a thing, and they were even more feared and hated than they were now. "Not like Yuuei, but, yeah, I went to one of those places."

"I went to public school before they administered those fucking Toe Tests." Explained the Explosion Quirk used, his fist tightening as he remembered those damned contraptions. "Deku and I took a bunch of steps to make sure I was able to hide my Quirk before then. He came out and helped me when he… Really didn't have much reason to." Recalled Katsuki, remembering the day his Quirk activated.

"He was like that as a kid too?"

"A dumb fuckin idiot? Yeah, he's always been like that." Nodded the blonde haired boy before continuing. "When it first showed up, I wasn't great at controlling my Quirk. I let loose explosions whenever some prick pissed me off – "

"So no change there then?"

"I swear to God I will turn you into pink mist if you don't let me finish my fucking sentences." Warned Katsuki sharply, sending over a glare that just caused Mina to laugh before he continued. "Any fucking way, Deku was the only person who figured out ways for me to hide my Quirk. Helped me figure out ways to hide it, and how to control it do I didn't just start obliterating everything that I saw. He basically taught me how to use my Quirk and helped me hide it."

Despite never having heard this before, Mina couldn't help but feel like she could already see where this story was going. It was a story she was all too used to by now. She didn't even need to guess the end result. Katsuki was Quirked.

It could only end one way in this world.

"Then they introduced the fucking Toe Tests." He growled at the mere mention of the routine, livid at its mere existence, of which he had every right to be. "Toe Tests have to be taken in front of an entire class, probably so they can humiliate the students that come up positive for Quirks. And mission fucking accomplished.

I was fucking fifteen when they decided to add on the Quirk tests, and my Quirk first showed up when I was twelve. Since Quirks are pretty new, I guess I was just a late bloomer or something, but anyway, me and Deku managed to hide my damn Quirk for three fucking years, and then some officials showed up and I had no way to get out of it. So all I could fucking do was go up front and basically yell to the world 'Hey everyone, I'm a fucking Quirked social reject!'."

Small sparks began to fly from his clenched fists.

"After they found out I had a Quirk, my classmates turned on me within seconds. Throwing shit at me, yelling at me…" While his teeth were clearly showing, it was clear that the memory of that day was something that Katsuki wasn't soon to forget. Mina knew from experience, suffering discrimination and betrayal like that wasn't something that someone could easily allow to fall into the recesses of their mind. They would remain there for decades to come, eating away at the person and their confidence for a long time.

For someone with pride like Katsuki, that sort of treatment would only serve to make his confidence that much more fragile. Perhaps that was why he was so aggressive and quick to defend himself through the methods of yelling and threats of violence. What little remained of his self-esteem perhaps was being defended vehemently by an insecure Katsuki.

Or maybe he just was an aggressive person by default.

Mina didn't know him well enough to make an accurate assumption. Though given the past he seemed to have... She couldn't blame him. After all, before she'd met him and Izuku, she'd been a more… Abrasive person. She trusted rarely, and only select few people. No Quirkless people. Izuku was the first Quirkless person she'd trusted in a long, long time. And now, he no longer was Quirkless, though his Quirk was an odd one indeed…

"Deku was the only person who stuck with me. Even the other students who were outed as being Quirked decided that it was 'Every man for himself'." Katsuki explained. In doing so, he picked up a coin that happened to be lying next to him. Absent mindedly, he threw it at the wall across from him, and watched it bounce off. "Deku took me in after my own parents threw me out… And he's been helping me live as normal a life as I can. He's a fuckin' idiot if he thinks he's gonna be able to change the entire world and their perception of those of us who've got Quirks… But I owe the bastard my life, so he's got my help if he likes it or not."

"So you're here just because you wanna help Midori?"

"Pretty much." Confirmed the angry teenager, reaching down for the coin again. "That's about it. It just so happens that he wants to make peace between the Quirked and Quirkless."

"So… You don't want both sides to come to an understanding?"

"Like I said, I don't see it fuckin' happening, not in this lifetime. Quirkless people are afraid of us, and they won't even give us the time of day. The media treats us like we're all a bunch of terrorists just waiting to waste their precious faultless society. Problem is, they rule the fucking world." Growling at the reminder of their unfavourable circumstances, Katsuki threw the coin in his hands this time with a lot more force, glaring at the sudden mark in the wall the metallic coin caused. "I don't see a damn reason why Quirked people should have to compromise to their bullshit. I'll want an understanding between the two of us when they see we aren't a bunch of fuckin monsters. Until then, I barley want anything to do with 'em."

A very common, and not entirely wrong stance to take, Mina knew. People who were born with their powers were treated like terrorists just waiting to happen, and there wasn't a single reason why people who had these abilities should have to submit to all thousands of rules and regulations, searches and check-ups at the behest of Quirkless people who didn't have the first idea what they were doing, or what they were talking about. It was as though they barely even saw Quirked people as humans, and there were a thousand politicians who openly claimed that they weren't. That they were monsters of freaks or mutants that needed cleansing.

It wasn't a wonder that in the Quirked community, anti-Quirkless sentiment was never low. Hate only led to more hate…

Katsuki on the other hand… He did seem to hate the Quirkless, but he put it aside. He pushed his dislike of them to one side to help the closest friend he had, the only person who stood by him, who just happened to be Quirkless himself. At times, it was like Katsuki barely even acknowledged that Izuku was Quirkless. He just treated him like he would anyone else.

And the same could be said about Izuku. Despite Katsuki's insistence that he was some sort of freak at times, Izuku never saw him as anything other than Katsuki Bakugou, his friend.

Of all the people that she could have possibly run into while she was in Tokyo… Mina couldn't have been happier that she'd run into these two. Two of the only people in the world who seemed to know what she was going through, understand what it was that she wanted, and took her in and helped her get down the right pathway. She'd barley even known them for very long, but she felt totally indebted to them. Like she'd known them for far longer than just a week.

She was glad she hadn't run into the anti-Quirkless…

"…What about that Kirishima guy?"

"He tries anything like that again, I'll blow him to fucking smithereens."

* * *

Before the day was finished, the entirety of the recently moved in student body found themselves called into the main hall of the school by the various teachers, all of them called to be addressed by Headmaster Toshinori Yagi. Presumably to give them all some sort of welcoming speech and to announce when their classes were to start. One of the teachers that went to the dorm room 1-A was some sort of mouse of bear or something – An exceptionally rare case of an animal with a Quirk. Very few of them had been recorded… and they were treated even worse than Humans with Quirks were. To Izuku though, it was absolutely fascinating, as it was to a few of their other Quirked compatriots.

The teacher, known to the students as Nedzu, had lead all of the students towards the main building, and into the hall room where Toshinori was already waiting for the students atop the platform he was stood on. Izuku remembered the day when Toshinori-sensei told him that he was going to be the Headmaster of the High School for the Quirked, and how he'd been absolutely amazed at the news. Apparently it was originally proposed that the position go to someone who had an intelligence enhancement Quirk, who as it turned out was Nedzu, but people barley even accepted humans with Quirks.

God knew what they'd do to an animal with a Quirk. They'd never take him seriously… So it was decided that it should go to Toshinori. Since he was originally Quirkless, he would supposedly be the best option for to job.

Though not a lot of the students seemed all that impressed with the skinny figure reporting to be the one at the head of their school. With his messy blonde hair, and weak frame and decrepit appearance, he barely looked like a functional human being without a Quirk, never mind being a headmaster to thousands of teenagers with superpowers.

"Man, the moods pretty… Tense, huh?" Mina commented, looking around her.

The number of glares that Izuku, her and Katsuki were getting were numerous, the news of a Quirkless student now among their midst, revealing a large amount of hostility towards the Izuku, his face apparently now public knowledge to everyone in the school. The vast majority seemed hostile towards him…. Which meant that any hopes he had of reaching these people was [pretty much gone until he was able to reveal his Quirk to them.

Which he couldn't do since he'd break his bones in doing so.

"It's…. Not like it's not justified." Izuku sighed. "Quirked people have had a really hard time thanks to Quirkless people… It's unreasonable to think that there'd be no hatred from Quirked people."

"I know." The Acid Quirk user flatly said. "I was one of them until about a week ago."

"O-Oh yeah…"

Nudging him with her elbow, Mina gave him a warm smile. "They'll come around. Eventually. I'm with you. And so's Katsuki."

Returning her gesture, which he deeply appreciated, with a nod, Izuku returned his attention to the stage, to see Toshinori making his way up to the podium, flanked on either side by multiple teachers, several of whom Izuku had met when he'd brought various people to Yuuei to help them get enrolled. He recognized Aizawa-sensei, whom had a Quirk known as Erasure. He'd been employed by the government explicitly due to his Quirk and its power, since he'd be able to keep an entire classroom at bay if that was what it came to.

In the eyes of the authority, anyway. His Quirk only worked against the one person he was focused on. It wasn't an all-powerful ability. Though Aizawa hadn't corrected them, so he evidentially had some other reasons for being here.

The next person that Izuku recognised was Sekijirou, whom had a Quirk called Blood Manipulation. It let him manipulate his blood, hardening it at will, as well as moving it around. Again, he was hired for the same reasons as Aizawa, as his Quirk could be used to help him restrain multiple students if the scenario ever arose.

Even the staff choices were clear indicators of the government's distrust towards Quirk users, that they chose people who would specifically be able to hold back against multiple enraged students. Presumably the two of them were either totally loyal to the state of affairs as they were… Or were just bullshitting their way through their situations and were just trying to get by. Perhaps they felt that they could do more for Quirked students by being there and helping them, or maybe they liked a challenge.

Izuku knew Aizawa fairly well… And he wasn't sure what he was supposed to think of him. He didn't seem like the type to take money from the government due to bigotry and a restriction against his own Quirked kind. He was a self-proclaimed rational sort of person whom always took the logical route… Maybe he saw how futile the Quirkless' struggle was against the Quirked, and was here to try and minimize the damage between the groups.

Truth be told, Izuku couldn't make heads or tails out of the eccentric man.

"Ahem." Toshinori suddenly acquired the attention of the many students there by clearing his throat into the microphone, before speaking, he traditional focus-grabber. Noise that wasn't coming from him stopped as all the various students and faculty laid their eyes on him. Waiting to see what would come out of his mouth.

Public speaking was something that Izuku knew Toshinori to be excellent at doing. Despite his posture and his appearance, his self-confidence was high, and he could speak his mind clearly and without any hesitation, while understanding the feelings of his audience and students.

"To start things off, I would like to welcome each and every single one of you to Yuuei, the High School designed and built for the needs of Quirked youngsters throughout all of Japan! I am to be your Headmaster! My name is Toshinori Yagi, and it is a pleasure to see all of these fine young faces ready to attend!"

Evidentially, he'd expected some kind of round of applause or some kind of reaction from the students. He didn't get one though.

He quickly cleared his throat and began to speak again. "As I'm sure every single one of you knows, or has directly experienced because of, the rest of the world is still struggling to adapt to the appearance of these unique and bizarre abilities we all know as Quirks. This school has been set up with the intention of giving you youngsters who have been gifted with these powers a safe haven of your own… Though as I'm sure many of you have figured out, this place is not the perfect sanctuary you were promised. And that is because of this reason – The Quirkless do still fear those of us who have powers."

That got a few murmurs going around the hall.

"However! It is important that we not justify that hatred towards those who have Quirks! While we are here, we shall be attempting to build bridges with the Quirkless, so that when you leave, you will be capable of having easier and far more fruitful lives! You shall also be receiving a high school equivalent level of education, along with remedial lessons that are designed to help you learn to control your Quirks and make them your own! In the name of showing my trust towards every single one of you here, I shall reveal to you my own Quirk, and it's most basic functions!"

That was a statement that got Izuku, Mina and Katsuki listening totally entranced. Izuku suddenly felt his skin crawl – What was the plan here?

Was he serious about to reveal the secrets of –

Within the second, steam erupted from all throughout Toshinori's body, leaving him totally encased in rising heat and as soon as he emerged from it, he was a totally different person. Muscles bulging from every single point of his body, an extra inch of five to his overall height, and a posture that put every single student to shame, he was barely even recognizable. Along with that, was a large, toothy grin that he displayed proudly.

"My Quirk is known as One For All!" Announced the Headmaster, showing off his varying muscles. "It is a power that allows me humungous physical strength through a crystalline of its previous users combined strength – And you did indeed hear me correctly! This is a Quirk that has the capacity to be passed down to other individuals, including those who were originally born Quirkless- Such as myself!"

The room erupted with noise at this revelation, and Izuku found himself totally bewildered by this announcement – What was going on? The plan regarding One For All was supposed to be to keep it quiet, wasn't it? People could attempt to steal the Quirk if they knew about its ability to be passed down!

And what was he doing revealing himself to be Quirkless before his acquisition of the Quirk? Had this been planned from the start, or was this some sort of recent development that he hadn't found the time to inform Izuku of yet?

Was it some sort of play to try and lessen the hatred towards the Quirkless by the students here?

Was it…

"As you return to your lodgings, you will, I'm sure, be showing off and discussing your various Quirks with one another – As you should, for that is the way of the future! A day will come where Quirks will become common place, and sharing what our powers are with one another will become an icebreaker that far exceeds the ones we have today!" Toshinori added on, before reverting back to his skinny frame. "I must inform all of you of your class assignments, and whom it will be that shall be teaching you from this day forward. Once you return to your dorm rooms, you will have only a few days to prepare before your lessons begin!"

Izuku, Mina and Katsuki all were assigned to Aizawa's class, which had been what Izuku was hoping. For all his oddities, Aizawa didn't seem to be a particularly bad kind of person, and since he knew the truth about One For All, he was someone that Toshinori trusted…

But Izuku couldn't get his teachers revelation of his Quirk and how it worked out of his head.

It was way too risky a move. Why had he done it…

Except…

Was it possible that he'd done this in order to make Izuku's revelation of his own power easier?

* * *

 **Because I know a lot of you think it's out of character - I chose Kirishima to be anti-Quirkless because I'm really trying to get across how fucked up the world is because of anti-Quirk sentiment, that it can even change someone as cheerful and accepting as Kirishima.**


	7. The Feelings Of The Quirked

"You know as well as I do that subjecting you to mindless prejudice makes absolutely no sense, nor help us achieve our goal, my boy." Toshinori spoke with a heavy sigh as he looked out the window of the head office of Yuuei, at the dorms down below. Truth be told, he never really wanted to find himself in a position such as this. Being a teacher seemed like it would be a difficult job on its own, never mind being the Headmaster of an entire school of Quirked teenagers, each of which were justly furious with this Quirkless dominated society.

Being a teacher almost seemed like a lost cause, as all the education in the world wasn't going to take away that anger. Sure, they could educate the children, teach them about why the Quirkless fear them, maybe even make some of the rethink their prejudices… But it wasn't going to erase the anger that they had. Subjected to discrimination and hatred based on ignorance and misunderstanding… No amount of education was going to undo the anger that they felt.

Toshinori still felt plenty angry at the Quirkless for the same treatment, and he had been born Quirkless. It was so easy for people to turn on others when they learned about their differences. When faced with something that they didn't understand, people lashed out in anger and fear. What made it all the more frustrating was the fact that people didn't even make the effort to learn about them. It had all happened before in the past. Race, religion, nationality, identity, and now against the Quirked.

Was the human race destined to just repeat these actions over and over and over, like a never ending loop of ignorance? Just once… Toshinori wished that the cycle would break. In whatever small way… Just once, he wished that the world would allow that cycle to just break.

It was why he had revealed the workings of One For All.

"But you always told me that if I inherited One For All, I needed to make sure that no one ever found out about it! You always told me that if word got around about a Quirk that could be passed down from person to person, then people could come and try to steal it from me!" Izuku protested, desperate to understand why his teacher had revealed this secret to the student body. He couldn't even begin to understand why the course of events had played out the way it did. He needed to know. "I-I don't understand why you told everyone!"

"The Quirk can't be stolen unless you wish for it to be passed on. So long as you keep the desire to hold onto One For All, then that isn't an issue. And like I said, Midoriya, subjecting you to pointless prejudice achieves nothing for us." The skinny man simply said. "The fury that these children have towards the Quirkless is far exceeding what we expected it to. The damage has been done to a lot of them, and it's going to take a large amount of effort for us to be able to bring them back around. So tell me something, my boy…" With that, he turned to look at Midoriya, empathy in his expression. He understood Izuku's frustration and uncertainty, and yet…. "…What would a boy being Quirkless in the dorms do for them at this stage? You'd be a punching bag."

Izuku opened his mouth to argue against that logic, but no words came out, because he knew that really… He was right.

The dream had been for a Quirkless student to enter the campus and for the Quirked to at least be receptive enough to give him a fair chance – Kirishima Ejirou had shattered that dream within ten seconds of them entering the dorm house. He proved that the gap between Quirked and Quirkless people was far too large to gap in the method that they wanted to try…

They'd been hoping for the best. A best case scenario. A scenario in which they had assumed the Quirked would be better than the Quirkless. That they would be more empathetic, more understanding, and more open to the prospect of peace.

But the reality way, they were just as bad as the Quirkless when it came to being prejudicial.

They were still human at the end of the day. They were just as susceptible to all the faults and fallacies that the average human had. They could give in to fear. Anger. Hatred. Just because they had these superhuman abilities, it didn't make them inherently better. Izuku always believed that, and Katsuki had always told him that it was true. The Quirked boy even said he wished he was Quirkless sometimes, just so Izuku wouldn't have to deal with this whole affair. But bar his Quirk, there hadn't been a noticeable difference between Izuku and Katsuki, on a fundamental level, anyway. Personality wise, yes, they had plenty of changes… But that was it.

Nothing about being Quirked made Katsuki biologically or mentally better than Izuku…

And it didn't necessarily make him more susceptible to the concept of peace between the Quirked and Quirkless. That had been a foreign force, in the form of a Quirkless idealist.

Thinking that they could apply that same logic to everyone in Yuuei High rapidly was an insane prospect – coming face to face with the sheer animosity that the Quirked felt towards the Quirked first-hand made Izuku realize this. Like the reality of his mission, his dream, had just hit him straight through the heart.

"There's got to be something we can do…" He said, almost hopelessly. He wasn't quite sure what he should make of all of this, but his original plan had, in less than ten hours, been totally wiped off of the face of the Earth, leaving him without any particular course of action. He'd always known it would be a difficult ambition to attain, but still… "I'm not just going to give up on them this quickly…"

"I don't expect anything less from you, Midoriya." Toshinori sighed, before he sat down behind his desk. Revealing his Quirk… It had been done for the sake of protecting this boy who cared so dearly about both the Quirked and the Quirkless. A boy who truly saw the good and the bad of both sides, and knew what should have been considered a fundamental truth. "I do think that this was the right thing to do. It should at least give you a chance to create some relationships with your classmates."

"I never knew…" Izuku started, before he cut himself off from speaking. Now wasn't the time.

That fundamental truth however, was that there wasn't a single difference between people who had Quirks, and people who didn't, aside from those aforementioned Quirks. And while it may be a large difference, at the end of the day, they were all still human, even if the Quirkless liked to pretend that they didn't share the same gene pool as the 'monsters'. Izuku had looked past it, showing a far more accepting nature than the majority of adults did. He understood how to show compassion, how to understand how other people felt. He knew. Being born Quirkless… He'd had every chance to look down and spit on the Quirked, yet he chose to stand by and shield them.

This boy was destined, Toshinori though, to become the bridge between the Quirked and the Quirkless. He truly did believe that Izuku was going to become that bridge, even if he possessed a Quirk or not. And Toshinori wanted to be there to see that happen, to see the day Izuku finally helped to bring an end to these ridiculous tensions, and bring in an era of peace.

It was why he had revealed his Quirk. To help protect Izuku when he explained everything to his dorm mates.

"…I… Have a question, Sensei." Izuku suddenly said, taking a gulp of air as he did so. He was clearly thinking about everything, and had just remembered something important that he had never gotten an answer to. Something he hadn't even found the time to question, despite the fact that it held a lot of sentiment to him.

Toshinori knew exactly what it was. His own face fell, and he let out a long winded sigh, depressed about the knowledge he possessed himself, and how it would affect not only himself, but Izuku too. "It's about Tomura, right?"

With a nod, Izuku confirmed that this was what he was curious about. Given his past with the Disintegration Quirk user, it was an understandable thing to be concerned about. "I haven't seen him since I got here… No one's even mentioned him… I… Did he leave?" The look in his eyes seemed to be pleading, as if Toshinori himself had the ability to manipulate fate and reality, to make it so that the black haired boy's fears were just that. Unfounded fears without any explanation to them. Irrational phobias.

Tomura Shigaraki was in fact, the very first Quirked person Izuku helped after Katsuki. The first one that the two saved as a pair, much like they had saved both Todoroki and Mina. When they had found him, he was homeless, embittered, and on the verge of resorting to crime as a way to get to his next meal. Izuku and Katsuki had managed to stop him, only to find him mentally disturbed, like he had been twisted and bent until there wasn't even a shell of what originally remained of the damaged man. As such, Izuku felt an almost parental instinct towards the deranged man, even if he was older than Izuku by about three years or so.

He also happened to be the grandson of Toshinori's teacher. It had taken a lot of digging to discover this information, but it was confirmed that the holder of the Quirk One For All, Shimura Nana, was his grandmother. Not only did this make Toshinori feel responsible for the young man, it also helped deepen the bond Izuku felt towards his first rescued Quirked man – In a way, Shimura Nana was like both his grandparents as well Tomura's. Especially now that Izuku had inherited the same Quirk.

It was just a shame… That Tomura truly and utterly had nothing but black, cold hatred towards every single Quirkless person on the planet. Even towards Izuku, the person who had gone out of his way to save him.

"…Tomura… Did in fact leave." A reluctant blond admitted, his eyes shifting to the surface of his desk. Remembering the day that he learned that Tomura had left had been… A difficult one. It had been a day filled with regret. And it had been so straightforward, and for such a simple reason that no one even saw it coming, for how basic it was the overlook.

Hatred clouding his head and heart, Tomura left Yuuei High in order to learn how to do one thing that the school would never teach him in a million years - And that was how to kill Quirkless people with his Quirk.

Plain and simply put, his mental state had been overlooked. It was clear he had suffered and had been on his own for the longest time. That much had been clear… But there were a thousand and one younger student show had been though the same thing, and had come out of the incidents unscathed. With the start of Yuuei only a few months away, Toshinori had been doing everything in his power to prepare the school to house as many people as they could, from dorm rooms, to finance, to food and drink to storage room, with the help of his fellow teachers.

None of them had even stopped to think that Tomura was susceptible enough to that treatment. The younger generations had handled it… But Tomura had been totally broken down and warped by it.

 _'Kill Them All - Level One.'_

That was the only message that he left behind. Nothing had ever been heard about him since then. No search parties, no police investigation, or anything.

Just because it had been the first time that Izuku had rescued someone from the streets, they had been careless. Inexperienced and unsure of how to go about caring for the obviously scared and furious people that they rescued from the streets… It was one of Toshinori's greatest regrets that he had been so careless, so neglectful, and so asininely stupid as to overlook Tomura and his well-being. It would always be one of his biggest regrets.

And by the look on Izuku's face, it would always be one of his now too.

* * *

The hatred that the Quirkless had towards the Quirked…

The hatred that the Quirked had towards the Quirkless…

Izuku thought about the hate both groups felt for one another, and questioned himself on one simple question.

Which was the one that needed to be dealt with first?

He stared outside his window and watched the world spin by for a short while. A lot had happened on his first day at Yuuei high. Far too much had happened, way too much for him to consider all in one go. From the exposure to the realities of Quirkless hate, to the fate of the very first person he had saved… It had been a rollercoaster that he should have been expecting… But hadn't been prepared for.

After everything that had gone down today, Izuku found himself thinking more and more on the specifics of what it would take to make his dream a reality. Which barriers had to be broken down, and what the pros and cons were to each action that he'd have to take. What it was that he was going to have to do with each and every consequence, and how to maximize the impact of the actions that he took. What actions could he take, and how could he do such things? How best to reach out to people, to make them see that there wasn't such a huge difference between the Quirked and the Quirkless, or that the Quirked could be helpful in a Quirkless dominated society?

What was it going to take… And who did he focus on first?

The most obvious answer was the Quirkless. After all, they were the majority in this world. They ran virtually everything. The news, the stores, the houses, the streets, and they were the ones who often incited violence against innocent Quirked people. Not to mention that the government was run by exclusively Quirkless people. Anti-Quirked laws, passed my rooms of people worldwide who were all totally Quirkless. Like a government that made laws degrading women that was exclusively signed by men. To put it as simply as possible, it wasn't even close to being fair. In a world dominated by the Quirkless, filled with ignorance and fear towards what they didn't even bother to try and understand, the Quirked were destined to suffer. All logic dictated that the Quirkless were the ones Izuku should be focusing on winning the hearts and minds of.

But the Quirked also made a good case. Having witnessed first-hand just how dangerous and angry Quirked people could well and truly be when pushed beyond a certain point, they could use the powers that they were born with to do some serious damage if they were left to their own devices. If they built up enough fury and decided that they'd had enough of being oppressed, all it would take was a few people with powerful Quirks to totally topple a city. Winning over the trust and support of people with those kinds of abilities could go a long way towards creating some understanding with the Quirkless.

Even if it was basically a means with which to say 'We aren't going to use these powers to kill you.'

Assuming that even devising a strategy to appease both was possible… Izuku still had no clue how to control his own Quirk. And the more he found himself getting deeper into this world, the more he felt like he was going to need it. The truth was, without a Quirk, he just wouldn't be safe. Not in this uncertain place. And with a Quirk that would only break his bones when used…

He sighed, and slumped his head down onto windowsill. Everything had suddenly become rapidly complicated, and he wasn't sure what to do. He had always had plans, ideas on how to proceed before, but right now, he was running on absolutely nothing. Damned if he did, and damned if he didn't, the Quirkless and Quirked were just as bad as one another, it turned out.

Although he did let himself chuckle. They were both massive jerks towards one another, so there was some common ground at least. But truth be told… He was finally starting to understand.

Understand just how little he knew about how the Quirked actually felt.

Upon thinking that, Izuku heard rapid knocking on his door, five of them being in under a single second, which made him stand up straight, dust down his cloths quickly, and quickly head over towards the entrance to his room. He already knew exactly who it was, just from that alone. There wasn't a shadow of a doubt that it was Mina who was knocking on his door like a machine gun in his head. Had he not locked the door, she'd probably have just barged right in. Honestly, he was surprised she just didn't do that anyway.

Grabbing his door key from the table on the way, he unlocked his door in a swift motion and opened it. Once opened, it revealed that it had indeed by the hyper-energetic pink girl knocking on his door with vigour, her hands now shoved behind her back and hips, while she stood there with a large smile on her face. Her spirit seemed totally unhampered by everything that the group had gone through today, though they had gone through less than Izuku had personally.

Which was… Actually weirdly concerning.

"Ashido? What's wrong?" He asked, opening the door a bit wider to stand in the doorframe unobstructed. "D-Did something happen?"

"Nah, nothing." Mina quickly reassured him. She was actually sounding incredibly cheerful, which was a certain juxtaposition from what she normally seemed like. From what Izuku knew about Mina from the time that they had known one another, yes, she'd been friendly and rather happy most of the time, even in spite of their predicament, yet she'd never displayed any outright joy or cheer at the same time, like she was doing right now.

For a second, Izuku seriously thought that something might be wrong with her. Granted, no one had been given much of a reason for celebration over the last week and a bit, with everything from her rescue to Katsuki's kidnapping operation. So much had gone down in such a short space of time, no one had really had the time to breathe, let alone relax. And now, she had little reason to worry. She was in a building surrounded by people who weren't going to try and shiv her for having a Quirk for the first time in her life. Granted, since she was associated with Izuku, they might shiv her for a totally different reason, but it was a step up from being kicked down to the dirt for having pink skin and horns.

It was like, for the first time since meeting her, Mina was able to show her true colours. Placed into an environment in which she didn't have to worry… She seemed to be able to finally just…. Be Ashido Mina.

"Everyone's gonna meet in the living area. A couple of guys showed up at my room and said that they were gonna all introduce one another, and show off their Quirks a bit. Get to know each other. Told them I'd go, thought I'd come see if you wanted to." Explained the Acid Quirk user, showing off her teeth with a smile at the end of her sentence. She seemed to be bouncing up on her toes as she spoke, as she rapidly grew taller and shorter with every alternate second. "I thought it might be a good chance to meet everyone! Introduce ourselves, and tell them about your Quirk, see if we can make some peace with them."

It made a lot of sense to do so, Izuku conceded, stepping outside his door and locking it behind him. He knew that it wouldn't do a lot of good – Really, if someone did want to get into his room, they'd have no trouble knocking it down with their various Quirks. Habit had kicked in over his knowledge of his newfound environment. He actually caught himself locking the door, staring at his hand while the key was still in the lock. Just looking at it, remaining totally still, motionless.

"Heheh…" Chuckling lightly to himself without even moving, he then proceeded to gently laugh at his own actions without explanation, causing Mina to look at him like his mind had just broken down. He didn't break into outright laughter, just small giggles at himself.

A key? An old habit that he did purely automatically? A lock wasn't even going to do much good if someone like Kirishima decided to come knocking and bust down the door… That was what made him realize?

How stupid was he?

Another particularly large giggle. What was he even doing?

"Guess I'm not even really used to being around Quirked people who really do hate me, huh?..." Izuku said, pulling his key from the lock, and holding it up in the light so Mina could now see it clearly. She was growing increasingly concerned at Izuku's actions, even taking a step back from him. "I thought I understood how Quirked people felt… I thought I knew how a lot of them thought… How they felt… I thought that I really did get it…"

"Midori?..."

"I knew…" He admitted, his already weak smile faltering that little bit more, cracking right there, before Mina's black eyes. "I knew that the Quirked hated the Quirkless… How couldn't they hate them?... I don't like it… But I do understand how they feel… Or… I thought I did…" Letting his hands flop to his side, he looked over towards Mina in the corner of his eyes, and made contact with her own yellow irises. He could see the worry, the empathy that was within them… But curiosity too. It was that tender expression that gave him the feeling of comfort he needed to keep speaking. "…Did you know I've never actually met Quirked people who wanted to kill me just because I was Quirkless?"

That surprised Mina. Quirked people weren't exactly rare anymore. Sure, they were a vast minority in comparison to the rest of the planet, but nowadays, with Quirk activations becoming an almost daily occurrence, it wasn't difficult to find people who were manifesting these superpowers if you knew where to look. And Izuku did know where to look. That had been how he had found so many people that he could help along the way… But if that were the case, the odds of him finding people who truly hated the Quirkless would increase dramatically.

From experience, Mina knew that the vast majority of Quirked people were hostile towards the Quirkless because of the discriminative policies that kept getting placed… She'd been one of them herself. The policies were unfair, based on the notion that each of them were terrorists waiting to happen. And it occurred in the most innocent of places.

Refused a cup of coffee from a corner store.

Pushed aside from lines like they were vermin.

Glared at while they begged for spare coins.

They were second class citizens, there wasn't even the slightest doubt about that, and that was their best case scenario. They were lucky if they were just trodden on and spat at. With that sort of treatment, being told they were welcome, violent actions and obvious contempt… It was no wonder that the Quirked grew bitter towards the Quirkless. The people they considered to be their friends at one point. Family… When betrayed by the people that you love, the people you've known for years… Of course hatred would build up.

It was the small things. Those were the ones that hurt the most.

So the fact Izuku hadn't been attacked just for being Quirkless before… It honestly did amaze her. Mina had built up that same resentment for over a year… Had they met differently… She could have been the first person to attack Izuku outright. She had certainly been at the point where if she'd had to deal with another Quirkless person hurling abuse at her, she would snap… Were it not for those guys with knifes.

And Izuku's heroic actions that day.

"Y-Yeah…" Izuku nodded, his smile still wavering while he then looked towards the ground, his hair now covering his green eyes, preventing Mina from being able to see if he was starting to tear up. His unsettling chuckles stopped suddenly, becoming more and more choked out. His voice breaking… It indicated that he indeed was starting to cry. His hands were not in tight fists at his sides, like doing so would help him to calm himself. " Kirishima's attack earlier… It just…. It reminded me just how some people really do hate one another over some seriously dumb things… Even if it is totally justified. But I… I've never been on the receiving end like that before. I-It just hit me… How little I r-really knew… A-About everything Quirked people…. H-How they really feel. I-I knew that you hated Quirkless people… B-But…"

"Midoriya…" Standing there totally aghast, Mina lost all her abilities to think about anything other than an apparently broken Izuku. Just a second ago, he'd seemed okay, but now he'd just shut down like this. She wasn't sure what to make of the situation – Was he okay? Had something major happened to him, or was he starting to have doubts? Regrets?

The way he talked… It was like he'd finally seen reality. Like that optimistic haze that had kept him hopeful had been utterly crushed into the dirt by the events that had gone down today. From being outed as the Quirkless one of the school before he'd even stepped onto the grounds that day, to being attacked, to his tutor revealing how his passed down Quirked worked… He'd gone and spoken to him afterwards… Had something happened there that had caused him to contradict and inquire into the daunting task he'd set for himself?

Had he already lost hope? Or had the painful reality on just how much total dispositional hate and fear both sides had?

Did he… Only now fully grasp just how much of an uphill struggle he was faced with?

Desperate to try and offer some comfort, Mina searched her vocabulary for the words that she needed to assure him that he was just overthinking things, that he'd just had a bad day and that tomorrow would be better, and they could really start to build those bridges he always talked about… But she knew.

They'd be lies, and Izuku wasn't stupid. In fact, it was because he was so smart that he was crying in the first place. Because he understood the brutality of the situation in front of him. No amount of news reports, rescue missions or debate was ever going to help express the absolute gut-wrenching feeling of being discriminated against personally. No amount of understanding would help express it…

He knew what the Quirked felt now… And it had hit him hard.

"I…I don't know what to do." He admitted, bringing up his right hand to cover his face as he felt hot tears starting to stream down his cheeks. "I-I don't… I really… Really though t-that I-I'd be able to do more... B-But I didn't e-even know how bad things had gotten… I-I didn't…" suddenly, his frown became oh-so heartbreakingly noticeable, his teeth gritted as water streamed right by him, uncaring and boiling hot. "I-I know it's only the f-first day… B-But I-I don't know if I-I can do this… I-I can't give up… I-I won't… But… I-I just… I don't know how to… How to…" He paused, choking back another tear before he finally finished speaking. "I don't know how to fix this…"

What was it about this entire situation that made Izuku think that the weight of all the Quirked rested on his shoulders in particular, Mina wondered to herself, still searching for the words that she just didn't have to say that everything would be okay to him. What was it that made him care so much? Natural empathy, or was it because his best friend was Quirked? Did the fact he didn't know how to help his friend make him feel like he'd failed Katsuki? Like he'd failed everyone he'd ever tried to help?

He was trying to do everything at once… To end this hatred between the two groups as fast as he could, desperate to avoid more tragedies from happening. It was admirable… But he was never going to accomplish that goal if he kept pushing himself like this. She knew he cared about the Quirked… And it never showed more than it was doing right now. Katsuki had told Mina that Izuku was always emotional and prone to crying to the point where seeing him in tears was practically meaningless… But looking at the black haired boy now, it was hard to see how this could ever become something someone could ignore.

No words would make him feel better…

For a short few seconds, Mina just stood there, allowing him to just fight against his tears on his own, not sure what she could do or say to ease up the clear pain and guilt that Izuku was feeling. There wasn't anything that she could say or do that would totally erase these doubts. He was going to keep thinking like this for as long as there was inequality between the two groups...

Instead of saying a single word, she stepped closer towards him, and with one swift motion, she pulled him into a tight hug, resting his head on her shoulders, and wrapping her arms around his back, keeping him close to her.

Predictably, Izuku didn't do anything, but he did seem to stop sobbing as soon as he was pulled into the embrace. His eyes became wide, and he no longer was shaking out of his own self-created despair, and his chin was pulled onto her shoulder, like it were a stand for him to rest his head on. Thankfully no one else was walking down the corridor, or they might get the wrong idea, or see a sniffling Izuku and attempt to make fun of him, neither of those things being what Mina wanted with this hug. All she wanted… Was to just show him some sort of comfort. Offer some sort of support, be it emotional or physical.

"You can't keep thinking that you're all alone in this." She said to the, as it turned out, slightly younger boy she was keeping in her arms right now. "I know you're trying to do the right thing… But you can't tear yourself up like this… You aren't going to be able to help anyone if you're feeling this poorly about yourself." One of her pinks hands managed to find its way to the back of Izuku's head, and into his curly hair, and remained there, keeping the awkward boy right there before he moved again. "I don't know anyone who is so serious about trying to end such a dumb conflict, just because it's the right thing to do." Lowering her voice into a soft whisper, she spoke gently. "I don't hate the Quirkless. Not anymore… You're the person who changes that. So thank you."

Not responding for a while, Mina feared that she'd only made things worse, that her words had just been salt to rub into the wound. She wasn't ever the best at making other people feel better, mainly due to her total lack of experience in doing so in recent years. All she knew how to do was say what she thought.

"…You make me sound like some sort of hero…" Muttered the emotional black haired boy, eventually returning the hug in a much gentler manner, loosely wrapping his arms around her waist and upper back. In spite of everything that he'd said and felt in the last few moments, he didn't feel embarrassed by what had happened at all. "I never feel like I've done enough to help people… I don't think I ever will have done enough… I'm not a hero…"

"…You're my hero, Midori." Honestly answered Mina, allowing her own eyes to close, and a small smile to spread on her lips.

His own eyes heavy and stinging from crying, Izuku shut his eyes too, allowing himself to just be washed over with this warmth that Mina offered. That last sentence that Mina said though… that phrase that they had both sued… For whatever reason, it kept running through his head on repeat…

' _A… Hero…'_


	8. Quirked Suspicion

The main living space of the dorms for what had collectively been named Class 1-A was actually quite a comfortable area, all things considered. Soft sofas and plenty of spaces for everyone to sit down. Aside from just looking atheistically pleasant, it also held a number of time-killing activities, including a large flat screen television, supplied with games consoles. While anyone with half a working brain could clearly tell that it was just to placate them from going mad and blasting a hole through something, quite a few people didn't really seem to care, judging by the fact that some of the games cases were already open, disks not even bothered to be put back in them, and instead resting on the top of the system itself.

As Mina remembered from her tour with Todoroki, it was actually a pretty comfortable set up. It did actually remind her of her home, before she was thrown out. A cosy set up, if they weren't in what amounted to a prison cell, where half the inmates were out for blood.

When she entered the room alongside with Izuku, a number of heads turned and sent over sharp glares, too high for any comfort of either his or hers. Thirteen pairs of eyes looking over towards Izuku like he'd just declared himself the king of the Quirked within the dorms. It wasn't tricky to understand though – According to society, he was. He was supposedly superior to the people with Quirks, since he wasn't some sort of genetic freak.

"What the hell, Ashido?!" One of the students questioned, sounding like he'd been personally betrayed by the pink skinned girl. He barely even seemed capable of looking towards Izuku. Intimidation, possibly, though that didn't stop him from speaking of him poorly. "I thought I told you that we weren't including the Quirkless kid!"

Izuku gulped when he heard that, and looked towards Mina. It didn't take more than a single brain cell to figure out that Mina possessed a Quirk. Her physical adaptations were so obvious that it wasn't even funny. So anyone could have figured out that she had a Quirk, which is probably why the other students had approached her without any hesitation to inform her of their meetup. Perhaps they had an aim of squeezing her for any information that they could get on Quirkless Midoriya Izuku while he wasn't around.

They probably didn't dare outright confront Izuku. A word from him to the right people, and they could all be thrown out onto the streets again. The privilege of being born Quirkless.

The glares made a lot more sense now – As opposed to how much sense they made before. They had every right to be distrustful.

"Get lost, Kaminari." Mina flatly stated, before placing her hand on Izuku's shoulder gently, before grinning towards him. Her total disregard for the opinions of her fellow Quirked students made Izuku stammer out absolute nothings for a few seconds before the Acid Quirk user opened her mouth again. "Not only is he one of our classmates, he's my friend. He's got every right to be here."

"You're friends with the Quirkless?" Another one of the students asked. She was a notable person since she didn't appear to have any major physical mutations, or minor ones for that matter.

"Probably Stockholm Syndrome, knowing those bastards." Kirishima said without any remorse, glaring straight towards Izuku like he was plotting how best to stab him in his sleep – A feat that was very easily attainable given his Quirk.

There wasn't any way anyone could mistake how much hatred Kirishima had towards Izuku, and the Quirkless in general. He was extraordinarily open about his animosity and hostility towards the generally prejudicial majority of people on the planet. Izuku did wonder what exact experiences had occurred to make Kirishima this openly antagonistic towards not just him, but all Quirkless in general. Judging from the scars all across his face, they would no doubt be unpleasant and painful just to hear, never mind to experience personally.

For a few tense, silent seconds, red eyes collided squarely with green ones, as Kirishima locked gaze with Izuku. The black haired boy could feel the killing desire from the Quirked student, like he was waiting for Izuku to flinch – If only just for an instant – So he'd get the excuse to batter him into a fine red paste. He didn't even need to say any words to make his position regarding the fact that this school that was supposed to be exclusively for Quirked people having a Quirkless student clear as day. He hated it He detested the fact that Izuku was even here on the school grounds, never mind that he was sleeping just a couple of floors away from him every night, and would have to look at his face every single day he woke up.

This didn't even seem like a general distaste towards the Quirkless. Kirishima seemed to seriously detest them, even if they'd done nothing to him on a personal level. Like he hated them for just existing.

Like how Izuku knew a lot of Quirkless people felt about the Quirked.

"Give it a rest. Midoriya hasn't even done anything." To Izuku's immediate right, Todoroki sat, just having been listening to all of this happen up until now. To his side, Uraraka sat, but with nary any sight of Katsuki to be noted. Had he been intentionally left out of the meeting too?

"Don't you think it's kinda dangerous to let the Quirkless guy know about our Quirks?" Another one of the students questioned aloud, to no one in particular, but loud enough so everyone could hear it. "I mean, he could tell people about what our Quirks do and how to create counter-strategies against us?"

"You do know the 'Quirkless guy' is stood in the room with you, right?" Mina asked with a quirked eyebrow, unsure if they were all actually this stupid, or if they just seriously didn't even consider Izuku to be a person worth acknowledging. Both options pissed her off though. "Like, I'm pretty sure he can heard what you're all saying. Besides, he isn't a spy. No way."

"I-It's okay, Ashido." Attempting to defuse the situation, Izuku tried to calm Mina down. The more she responded, regardless of If it was her intention or not, the less trustful of Izuku they were going to grow. The more excuses he had, the more suspicious he looked. Words weren't going to do anything to convince these people. "I-I understand why they're so sceptical of me."

Actions were. Which was why Izuku was so desperate to figure out how to fully utilize the Quirk One For All. He had an idea… An idea on how he could prove his genuine intentions to the students in Yuuei… But without learning how to fully control his Quirk… He wasn't going to be able to do much. The lack of ability to do anything right now frustrated him to no end. Still, for right now… He wanted to learn about his classmates some more. Learn what sorts of Quirks they all had, and figure out a bit more about how they ticked.

"Yeah, I understand too." From behind the meek young boy, Katsuki suddenly made his presence known to his fellow classmates. If he had just stumbled upon the meeting by chance, or if he'd been invited here, Izuku didn't know, but he clearly wasn't pleased with what he'd heard.

Approaching his two friends, Katsuki seemed to scan over Izuku and Mina, making sure that neither of them had sustained any particular injuries. He looked Izuku in the eye for a second, with a clear load of anger in his red eyes.

Not towards his childhood friend though.

"W-Wait, Kacchan – "

"What I don't get is what your fuckin' problem is with Deku!"

The Explosion Quirk user suddenly snapped sharply towards Kirishima with a fierce yell that managed to send shivers down the spines of every single person who was present in the room. It was practically one of Katsuki's talents, to make people visibly become terrified just by the power of his voice. He could scream with such anger and ferociousness that sometimes Izuku was freaked out by it, and he'd known Katsuki most of his life. Nothing would harden him to get used to that violent temperament.

Everyone in the room, bar a few people, totally froze. Obviously, Katsuki hadn't. In fact, he was seething, taking in sharp breaths and glaring towards the red haired student, almost convincing Izuku that he was plotting his murder. Used to this sort of thing whenever they fought off a Quirkless bigot from attacking Quirked people, Izuku was still able to move, though he let out a small sigh at the lack of restraint his well-meaning friend had, and sweating at the prospect of what was about to happen. Uraraka and Todoroki seemed used to it as well, though the Zero-Gravity Quirk user certainly was less sued to it, only ever really seeing Katsuki snap like this a few, very small, very infrequent times.

Them aside, most of the other students had simply stopped moving, either out of fear or out of surprise or anxiety from what was about to happen next. It was like they had all just learned that so poorly talking about Izuku, someone they knew next to nothing about, especially about his relationships with some of their other classmates, was a bad idea.

Kirishima on the other hand, he looked taken aback, but he didn't look outright scared by the ash blond boys shouting. His left eye quickly narrowed and he looked Katsuki square in the eye, like he was intentionally trying to provoke him.

"Deku?" He questioned, before looking over to check out the Quirkless boy again. Struggle to comprehend that name seemed to run through his brain, attempting to figure out if it was a code name, some sort of joke, or if Izuku's parents had just hated him when they named him. "That's its name? Deku?"

Although not a lot of people would normally take note of it, Mina and Izuku certainly did. Katsuki also did, and he already had plenty to be angry about. It wasn't sure if any of the other Quirked students had noticed it, since no one's expression particularly changed all that much, but to the ones who did notice…

It. Kirishima referred to Izuku as an 'it'. He was refusing to even acknowledge Izuku as a living creature, forget even seeing him as Human, Quirkless or not. As far as he was concerned, Izuku wasn't even an insect. He wasn't even worth of that label. A bug had more value to Kirishima.

That single word had irked Mina to the point where she was internally routing for Katsuki to unleash an explosion directly into the arrogant bastards face. After everything she'd been through, everything she'd seen… Izuku was the last person who deserved this disrespect. Especially not when there were a couple of billion Quirkless people who did deserve that sort of treatment…

And one Quirked person in the room who deserved it right back at them…

Not that it prevented Izuku from trying his best to reach out to him.

"Deku's just a childhood nickname." Explained Izuku, though it didn't seem like Kirishima cared much for wat he had to say. Attempting to express formality and good nature, Izuku attempted to introduce himself. "M-My name Midoriya Izu –"

"Your nickname means 'Useless'? Ha!" The spiky haired boy let out a single, loud laugh that showed off his set of sharp teeth "I suppose it's fitting for a Quirkless scumbag. You can't do anything really, can you?"

"One more." Katsuki growled, catching everyone's attention. Sensing that something bad was about to go down, Mina put her arm in front of her friend, and tried to get him to step back a few paces, not that he'd move an inch. "One more word about him like that, I fuckin' dare you."

Rising to the challenge, quite literally, Kirishima rose from his seat, and walked the small distance between him and Katsuki, levelling with him, eye to eye. Barely an inch separated their foreheads from colliding into one another.

"He's Quirkless." Kirishima stated, slowly, so Katsuki would hear every single syllable as clearly as possible. "Every single Quirkless person is the exact same. Every person here has experienced it. Let's have a show of hands – Who here hasn't been attacked by some Quirkless prick in their entire life?"

It felt like a stab to the heart when no one raised their hand. What Kirishima was saying... It was true that sympathetic Quirkless people were an extreme minority.

No wonder the students here were looking at Izuku like he was planning to kill them all himself. Few of them would have met a Quirkless person who hadn't treated them like monsters.

"Thought so." Gutsy didn't even begin to describe Kirishima. He didn't seem to have a single part of his being that was prepared to back down in this debate. Clashes between him and Katsuki were inevitable with that sort of personality.

"Kacchan, you don't need to – "

"And all I'm seeing in front of me right now is an apologist. He's not different to the rest of them. A Quirkless. Fucking. Scumbag."

No sooner had the final word of that sentence been uttered had Katsuki thrown a fast sharp, right hook, directly targeting the side of Kirishima's grinning face, and unleashing a huge explosion that threatened to tear open the nearest wall. Several sitting students had to cover their faces to avoid getting singed by the sudden detonation that the attacking Quirk user hadn't even considered holding back with. The attack encapsulated the red haired boy's entire face, leaving only his neck stump remaining. For the briefest of moments, it looked like Katsuki's attack had straight up blown the head off his target. A sinister smile on his face, the Explosion Quirk user relished at the thought.

On the other hand, Izuku was totally horrified. "K-Kacchan! What're you doing?!"

"Giving this bastard what he's got coming to him!"

Smoke and smouldering engulfed both Katsuki's hand and Kirishima's head, clearing up at a rapid rate before it revealed that, contrary to what his attack had hoped, Kirishima's head was still firmly attached to his shoulders. As the dark grey smoke started to clear up, the textures of his face and skin became clearer – Sharpened, and hardened, almost like that of a rock. His left eye was firmly shut, but once the smoke cleared up, he opened it, and grinned at his attacker with a look of victory covering his face.

"What the hell?" Katsuki vocally sounded confused, certain that his attack would have sent his opponent flying, as it had done earlier today.

Mina looked at the two of them alongside Izuku, both with eyes wide. The teenager had managed to not only stand up to Katsuki's Quirk, but had taken it face on, and not only that, he barley even seemed to have flinched! It had to be because of his Quirk, there wasn't any sort of question about that.

A Defensive type?

"Just a heads up – The same trick isn't gonna work on me twice." The red haired boy revealed, one of the more obviously hardened points being around the scar on his eye. "My Quirk is Hardening. It lets me turn my skin into a solid biological material that protects me from attacks. You caught me off guard with that impressive Quirk this morning – But I know your trick now."

With speed that was unexpected of him, the Hardening Quirk user launched a right hook of his own towards Katsuki, slamming him straight in the side of the temple with enough force that to the Explosion Quirk user, it felt like he'd just been clobbered in the temple with a rock. Sharpened edges on Kirishima's skin had sliced open Katsuki's skin, leaving a long trail of blood running down the left side of his face.

The sudden exchange between the two attackers suddenly caused several students to jump up on to their feet when they realized that this had the potential to escalate into a full-blown Quirk battle. It helped little that both of them had impressive Quirks that would guarantee a long and drawn out battle, but they had made their positions towards one another so abundantly clear that it seriously intimidated them, regardless of who they agreed with or not.

Despite taking such an injury, Katsuki didn't fall back, or even let himself be thrown back by the attack much. For a short few seconds, he staggered, while the message that he'd been struck made its way into his brain, before he stepped his foot out, using it to land on and regain his balance, already preparing his Quirk in his right hand to unleash a bigger, far stronger explosion. Tiny detonations appeared along his fingers and palms as he pulled his arm back before he'd throw it. "You son of a – "

Intervening before the fight could evolve any further, a small layer of ice, enough to literally freeze both parties in their positions, crept along the ground and up their bodies from the legs up and to each one of their respective joints, digging into their cells and keeping them motionless. Coldness encapsulated both brawling parties, freezing them right to their cores.

"Enough." Letting out a long sigh, during which the white mist of condensation escaped his mouth, Todoroki stood upright and walked towards the scene of the battle, looking between the two frozen dorm mates, each of them readying their Quirks to attack the other, frozen within time, unable to escape.

The ice part of Todoroki's Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk, its versatility demonstrated clearly for all to see, his impressive control a natural occurrence, not something he had particularly trained at doing. He just understood how his ice abilities worked, and had used them to hold the two brawlers in place, before they could cause more damage to one another, and the surroundings around them. They weren't totally frozen or encapsulated in ice. Both still possessed their abilities to understand their surroundings, although they were faced with an inability to move their necks freely. Like they were in a cocoon-prison of ice.

It would be impressive if it weren't so outright terrifying.

Control and perfect precision, like a laser cutter etching out the shape it wanted, Todoroki used his power like he had been taught how to master it since he was a child. Even when he had grown up the way he had, his level headedness left him totally capable of mastering such a Quirk as his own.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow." Kirishima hissed, looking like he was trying his best to rip his arms away from the frozen ice, but to absolutely no avail. If there was any pain that could be transmitted from his hardened skin, he was clearly feeling it now. The transfer of his body heat to the ice was rapidly both freezing and causing him a great deal of pain. "Oww-ow… What the hell?"

"Are we seriously going to have to deal with this every time you two run into each other?" Questioned Todoroki, looking at both the Quirked students with a look that conveyed absolutely no amusement. It was rare to see Todoroki smile anyway, so for his expression to be so clearly irked was an intimidating one indeed. He made himself as crystal clear as possible. "We're going to have to live together – No one here is interested in watching two duke it out every time you pass one another in a corridor."

"You just gonna let this fucker keep talking shit about us, you half-n-half bastard?!" Katsuki yelled, demanding a straight answer from the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user.

"Honestly I'd just like to not have a hole in the side of the dorms."

"Kacchan, you need to calm down!" Izuku declared, running over towards his frozen friend. Grabbing the nearest clean towel he could find, he tried doing his best to clean up the bleeding stemming from Katsuki's wound in the side of his head. "We aren't going to fix anything by using violence! You know it won't solve everything!"

"Might want to tell that to that prick over there!"

Neither side was guilt free in this situation, and Izuku knew this perfectly well. Kirishima had clearly and intentionally been provoking him to try and get a rise from him. He got one from Katsuki, so he just rolled with it, apparently seeming to decide that someone who had no issues with the Quirkless was just as bad as being Quirkless themselves. He held a generalized hatred of all Quirkless people and their backers, and showed absolutely no sympathy for anyone who even dared to utter that not every Quirkless person was a bigot or prejudicial. Katsuki was also in the wrong here, falling for Kirishima's provocations and launching the first strike. Everything had escalated after that, and had Todoroki not used his own Quirk to freeze them in place…

This could have easily become a far more violent confrontation than it already had been, and it had been way more than was necessary, which was any violence at all.

"Kirishima, are you – "

"Don't you even fucking talk to me, got it!" Even while frozen and essentially at the mercy of Izuku, Kirishima showed absolutely no signs of relenting in his anger towards him, for whatever reasons he had, be them personal or out of his generalizations.

It was the first time that Izuku properly saw Kirishima's expression, that wasn't from a long distance away. This time, he saw the details of his face that made his emotions all the more clear. Sharp teeth seemed to only further enhance the fact that he was a ferocious sort. If he had to, he'd probably try to bite Izuku to get his point across. Eyes narrowed and fixed right on Izuku, like he was looking at the devil himself. Twitches in his eyes showed his glare, and his scars over his eyes were deeper than Izuku had first suspected.

Wherever his prejudice against the Quirkless came from, Izuku had no doubt that the scar told a story, one that was far more complex and tragic than he had admitted to any of the people here. And that made sense. He barely knew anyone here. They had all only known one another a day.

He was the person who was responsible for making Izuku understand just how much pain the Quirked suffered on a regular basis, with his headstrong strikes and unprovoked assault of Izuku… Seeing it in the news was so different to it actually happening to you, Izuku understood now.

It wasn't something he had fully understood until Kirishima had attacked… But now he did get it.

In some weird way… He was thankful to Kirishima for that.

With a sigh, Izuku asked, "Todoroki, can you unfreeze them? I don't think they're going to cause any more problems… I think they got the message."

Raising his red eyebrow, Todoroki looked towards his black haired friend. While he trusted his Quirkless-born friend with his life, Todoroki seriously doubted that Katsuki and Kirishima were just going to leave one another alone after exchanging a few small blows with one another. Knowing the pair of them like he did, the bi-hair coloured boy was certain that another conflict would inevitably break out shortly, even if this meeting did go ahead without any further brawling. "Are you sure about that, Midoriya?"

Izuku nodded, indicating that he was sure in what he had said.

Surrounding them, the rest of the students in the dorm were watching both the Explosion and the Hardening Quirk user, some expressing a certain level of frustration or fear, while others seemed to be in support of what Kirishima had been saying, and others seemed glad that Todoroki had stepped in when he had done. None of them, however, seemed to want to get into some kind of fight while they were in the shared dorm buildings – and sure as hell not on their first day at the school.

Prison or not, this was where they were going to sleep. This is where they were going to live, and these were the people they were going to have to live with, regardless of if they liked it or not.

Even in spite of personal differences and disagreements, both Katsuki and Kirishima knew that if they broke out into another fight, that their classmates now would stop them, in order to preserve their new living quarters, and to ensure that they would be peacefully left alone by the teachers.

After all – One wrong move, and they could be thrown onto the streets, or worse, in prison.

And it seemed that those facts had returned to both the students' heads, as both looked over to their classmates, and let out a noise that was a combination of either a sigh or a growl. The rope they both trod upon was a very thin one indeed, the rope that held onto their lifeline as Quirked teenagers in a world that hated and feared them.

They both had a mutual fear though.

And that was the fear of what would happen to the Quirked if the Quirkless decided that they were more trouble than they were worth.

* * *

"Right, so, I'm Ashido Mina!" Introduced Mina, trying to be as peppy as she possibly could. She was the tenth person to go through their name and their Quirk as the students began to introduce themselves. "My Quirk is called Acid – It lets me secrete Acid from anywhere on my body… Though I can't really show you it, for, y'know, obvious reasons."

Engine, Dark Shadow, Electrification, Earphone Jack, Creation, Frog-Form. Those were just a few small examples of the Quirks that Izuku had learned of today. Each one was unique to that particular individual, and those that were able to had done a small demonstration of what they could do. Several weren't exactly suitable to be used inside a building without causing damage to the place, and some just didn't have what they needed to demonstrate their Quirk properly.

Either way though, Izuku was learning more and more about how varied Quirks could be by the minute. He'd never seen such a wide variety of Quirks in one single place.

And with it… He'd never seen so much tragedy in one place either. Everyone here had been attacked, persecuted for their origins. They all had scars that they carried. Some carried them quite literally, showing wounds that sunk deep into their skin, and others shared the pains that they had to carry within their hearts.

The owner of the Quirk Engine, a tall young man who was named Iida Tenya, had revealed that he had one of his legs broken a few weeks after his Quirk had begun to develop by people he had considered to be his friends. Tokoyami Fumikage had been held and beaten in a cage by Quirkless extremists who treated him like an animal due to his crow-like head, which now had various cuts and scars all over it. Kaminari Denki claimed to have been chased out of his home town, and Jiro Kyoka claimed to have had her unique earlobes tugged and nearly torn out by hundreds of people that she had met. The girl who had the Frog Form Quirk, Asui Tsuyu, said that she'd had to run from her home when her family started seeing her more like an animal than they did like a person, and seriously had considered having her 'Put down to end her misery.'

Like she were a pet, not a person. It was something Mina could identify with. She understood how that felt, far too much.

And while not everyone had psychological and physical scars, they were more than aware of the fears that were shared by those that did. They saw the sorts of hate and anger that the less fortunate Quirked students. Yaoyorozu Momo, Aoyama Yuga and Uraraka were the only examples, whose family hadn't thrown them out or disowned them, accepting them as they were, even in spite of their Quirks.

Three people out of nineteen students who hadn't been thrown out because of their Quirks… It wasn't a particularly favourable statistic. It just proved furthermore the negative stigma of Quirks.

That not even blood ties were enough to protect a lot of people from discrimination – From even their own family members.

"What a cool Quirk!" the same student that had called Mina out for bringing Izuku along to the meeting, Kaminari, showed a large amount of interest in the pink skinned girls Quirk, looking at her in awe. "C'mon, you can't even show up a little of it?"

"I mean, I can pour some pretty weak stuff into a glass… But it'd be nothing that impressive."

"Go for it! You can show off more than my Electrification!"

Agreeing, Mina quickly downed the water that she had in her glass, and placed it on the table in front of her, every other student keeping their eyes firmly on her like she were about to perform an incredible magic trick that would blow everyone away and reveal herself a master of witchcraft. Already, multiple Quirks had been shown off, bizarre and unique as they were. In terms of appearance, Mina was one of the strangest, so it wasn't that surprising that everyone was eager to see what her Quirk let her do.

Pooling a small concentration of the least corrosive liquid that she could secrete into the palm of her hand, Mina allowed gravity to pull the weak acid down from her palms into the container of a glass just underneath her hand, showing off what her Quirk was capable of. "Obviously if I wanted to hurt someone, I'd use a more corrosive mix, but I can also control how thick the acid is too. Though if I use it too much, my skin reaches its limit and I can make any more."

"I thought your skin was supposed to help increase your limit." Uraraka mentioned.

"Nah, the skin is because of my Quirk. It just affected the pigments… That's what the doctors said, anyway."

"So… The horns, the pink hair and the black eyes…" Sero Hanta questioned, pointing to each body part as he called them out. "What's going on with them?"

"No idea." Mina cheerfully answered. "They're just that way because that's how they are."

"That's odd." Yaoyarozu commented. "Sero's elbows are shaped like canisters to help him eject the tape his Quirk lets him produce. Asui's body is developed more like a frog's due to her Quirk, and Ojiro's Tail is… Quite self-explanatory, and so on." She the pointed towards herself "I don't have any altercations at all, but most of you all do, but none seem to affect your Quirks all that much. Kirishima's teeth are sharp, and Kaminari, you have a natural highlight in your hair, right? But… You and Koda are the only ones who have bizarre appearances that don't even relate to your Quirks."

"I guess it's just one of those things." Izuku suggested, though he wasn't at all sure his input was appreciated, not that it was going to stop him. "I-I've met a lot of people with Quirks, but not all of them had much sense to their design, despite their Quirks…"

"What'd you do?" Kirishima asked, eyeing Izuku carefully. "You toss a rock their way, or – "

A loud detonation, and flash of light emitted from Katsuki's hands caused everyone to face his direction. His palms smouldering, Izuku thought that Katsuki was about ready to launch himself towards Kirishima and beat him down again.

Instead, he didn't.

"My turn." He announced. "You've seen my Quirk – Explosion. I can cause as many explosions from my hands as I like – Piss me off, and I'll throw one your way."

"An impressive Quirk." Tokoyami noted, nodding his head as he said so, expressing his impress towards Katsuki's ability.

"Yeah, I bet it's super easy to keep hidden too!" Hagakure joined in, sounding both incredibly jealous and impressed at the same time. Her invisibility made it difficult to tell what it was that she was trying to convey.

In spite of the fact that he'd made his side very clear, it didn't prevent people from admiring his Quirk. It was an impressive one, with a lot of versatility if he ever wanted to use it. And it was subtle, not showing any altercations to his appearance. A deadly Quirk that was hard to notice. For the Quirked students, that was the perfect sort of combination.

It was one that Izuku himself was also quite intrigued by, since it had been his first personal experience with. He knew the Quirk just as well as Katsuki did, and he knew just what sort of things his friend could do if he wanted to.

"Deku's the one who helped me figure out how to control my Quirk." Katsuki made clear, before turning to look at his best friend. "Speaking of which, Deku, you're up. Tell 'em what you can do."

It became total silence when Katsuki passed to turn over to Izuku, though clearly no one was expecting much, as they all seemed to become passive and disinterested. Clearly they were sceptical of Izuku, but none of them even really seemed to want to acknowledge that he was even there.

"Are we seriously going to have the Quirkless guy tell us he's Quirkless? We already know about him!" Kaminari protested, showing that he didn't even want Izuku to speak. Like if he couldn't hear the voice of the Quirkless student, he wouldn't exist.

"How about you let him tell you for himself?" Uraraka jabbed before looking over t Izuku. "Go on Deku, tell 'em!"

"Tell us what?"

For a moment, Izuku deeply considered the Pro's and the cons to telling these people about One For All.

He couldn't show off the Quirk at all – He would not only probably destroy the building, but he'd break his bones as well, meaning he could only tell them about the Quirk he now was host to. They could easily not believe that he had one, and accused him of being a liar. All the thoughts form earlier had started seeping in…

But if they found out about One For all later… Then would that cause more issues that if he told them about it now?... If he told them about it now, would some of them try to steal it… Or would they just write him off as insane or an absolute scumbag, and make reaching them harder than before?...

Izuku was Quirked now – He had possession of one of the most unique Quirks known to the entire face of Quirks… But either way, this could be a loss-loss. No one had ever had to confess to having a Quirk despite being Quirkless before…

So there wasn't really a procedure that he was going to be able to follow.

Instead, he looked forwards his friends – Katsuki, the person who had thrust this choice upon him, clearly confident that he was going to make the right choice. Uraraka, the person who had no doubts that he was going to achieve the goals that he had planned for himself. Todoroki, who would leave the choice up to Izuku's judgement…

And Mina, who had reassured him that his goal was attainable. The person who had comforted him not so long ago… Reminded him of why he wanted to help bring peace between the two sides.

There were several things that were needed to create a bond of trust that would in turn end the persecution from both Quirked and Quirkless individuals. Each person had their own idea of what trust meant, and what was needed to help build a bond… Izuku believed that honesty and loyalty were what were needed the most…

So he made his choice based on that alone.

"I… My name's Midoriya Izuku, as you know… And.."

He swallowed.

"…I do have a Quirk."

Clear confusion followed his statement, so he continued quickly before his words were used against him.

"At the initiation ceremony by Headmaster Toshinori… He mentioned that he was born without a Quirk. Well, the same is true about me. I wasn't born with any of your awesome powers… But I… I hate the way that other Quirkless people treat you! Headmaster Toshinori noticed this about me… And he's been helping me help other Quirked people for a few years now. I helped Uraraka and Todoroki get here… My Quirk… I only just inherited it, but it's called One For All – It's the same Quirk that Toshinori-sensei uses!."

"Prove it then."

Any and all noise stopped as soon as Kirishima issued the challenge towards Izuku, his arms folded and leaned back in his seat. He wasn't smiling, nor gloating, nor did he appear to be all that confident. It wasn't clear if he trusted Toshinori or not after learning about his Quirkless origins, but that wasn't the main issue here.

The main issue here was if Izuku was telling the truth or not.

"W-What?" Izuku stuttered, blinking a couple of times.

"The headmaster has his Quirk – He showed us. Let's see you use your Quirk."

"I-I can't." As every pair of eyes fell onto Izuku, his stammer suddenly increasing as his anxious personality came into play. "I-I only just got given the Quirk – A-And I-if I use it, I-I end up breaking my bones! M-My body isn't used to One For all yet."

"So basically you've got absolutely no way to actually prove you have a Quirk."

"A-Ask Toshinori-sensei!"

"Yeah, let's ask someone who was born Quirkless, that's a trustworthy source."

"I fucking vouch for him." Katsuki declared, standing up to make himself appear to be more intimidating, a tactic he'd developed over his time fighting against Quirkless bigots alongside Izuku.

"You're biased." Kirishima flatly stated, dismissing Katsuki as a valid source. "You and your little gang is totally biased. How do you expect us to trust people who follow this runt all over the damn place? Are you trying to take the piss out of us?"

The muttering quickly returned against Izuku, as every one of Kirishima's points was incredibly valid and true. Without a demonstration of the validity of the claim Izuku was making… He wasn't trustworthy. The people who claimed that he had this supposed Quirk weren't trustworthy.

Izuku had just suddenly downgraded from not only being Quirkless – He'd gone down to Quirkless fake who was trying to mock the Quirked.

Katsuki growled, feeling his fingers become rigid and he felt sparks beginning to generate from his palms. "You son of a bitch…"

"Woah, Katsuki, calm down!" Uraraka quickly jumped up and tried to pull back a clearly enraged Katsuki from launching another assault at the red haired Hardening Quirk user. He was already trying to take a step forward before Uraraka was pulling back on his shoulders to pull him back.

"Kacchan… It's okay." Izuku muttered, holding his arm out to stop him from getting any further. He had his head lowered, hiding his eyes with his hair as he just sat himself back down, with no point in further fighting his point.

Mina just had to watch as Izuku felt what little trust or respect that the classmates that he had with his classmates and dorm mates just fall and shatter into the ground. Nothing that he could do, and nothing that she could do to help him recover that trust and respect. He had told them the truth, he had tried to share what little information he had about himself… His one attempt to show just how much he supported the Quirked by accepting one of his own….

It had been shot down, and right now, he couldn't do anything to prove his innocence.

Looking at him now… She wondered…

Why…

Why was he smiling?


	9. He Has No Quirk!

That night, despite knowing that tomorrow he would have to be up bright and early, as the lessons at the school would finally begin, Izuku was up late, hunched over his desk, with nothing but a glass of water, a notebook, a pencil, and a sharpener. Armed with nothing else except his memory, he began making notes and sketching down the appearances of his fellow dorm mates, making notes of their Quirks, and thinking of the various things that they might be able to do.

They had returned to their rooms after everyone had been introduced, certain groups forming as they had all separated. People who were already getting along, or knew each other before attending the school gathering together to discuss matters or hang out. From the names that he had managed to commit to memory, Izuku had noted Kirishima, Kaminari, Mineta, Yaoyarozu and Kyoka seem to form a group, whereas others such as Fumikage, Shoji and Asui formed others. Aside from the ones already in his circle, they stayed clear of Izuku, apparently having already made up their minds about the resident Quirkless student, and their intentions on how they would proceed regarding him. The same attested to the people who had stood by him, to a certain degree.

No-one was outright hostile towards Katsuki, Mina, Todoroki or Uraraka, but no one seemed overly eager to call them over to their groups, to talk to them and try to get to know them, see what made them tick and see if they could start a friendship of some description. They seemed to view being associated with Izuku as a social blemish, in the same way that being Quirked outside these walls was treated. The hypocrisy was terribly strong… But it wasn't irrational, at least not to them.

It angered Katsuki and Mina, but Izuku had calmed them down. He had his own ideas for the future…

When he wanted to, Izuku had a fairly decent talent for making rough sketches. He had a certain kind of mind that let him at least get the overall shape of what it was that he was trying to achieve. He liked to call it his selective-photographic memory, that let him keep vast quantities of information in his head, but only if it was relevant or interesting to him. These images and facts that he had burned into his brain were of relevance to him, so he remembered them, simple as that. His drawings were never perfect, nor were they ever going to be hyper-realistic drawings that would put the world famous artists of The Renaissance to shame – But the overall shape would be clear. It would be clear.

In the very first notebook he started to fill in, the very first person he drew in was Mina. Alongside his sketch of her, he highlighted all of her various physical traits, pointing out the oddities in her appearance. The black eyes, the pink skin, the horns and the naturally pink hair, all blended up into a combination that was one odd-looking Human being that without a Quirk, simply would not occur. Next to this drawing, he wrote in her Quirk – Acid. Next, he went over said Quirk, explaining everything that Mina had explained to him, what her Quirk was, how she activated it, and what he felt it could be useful in. When he sat down to think about it, her Quirk would be remarkably useful in combat, or if she wanted to be sneaky. It all depended on how creative and unorthodox she was as a person, hence why he didn't want to leave her entry at only a couple of points.

He spent about an hour and a half filling in the two pages there, thinking and scanning over her Quirk in her head before he flipped over and went onto the next double sided page. This next page was an easy one to fill in. Katsuki and his Explosion Quirk. He knew plenty about that particular Quirk, having been in such close proximity to it for the last few years. He could probably fill in three pages of the Quirks function alone, but he kept to the basics, for the sake of saving paper. He mentioned the mutations to his sweat glands, and how he ignited the nitro-glycerine-like sweat at will from his palms at will. Ferociously versatile and brutally damaging, Katsuki's Quirk didn't have a huge amount of things it wasn't good at. Another hour was clocked away doing all of this.

Todoroki's Quirk was just as easy. Ice and fire, Izuku had plenty of ideas for that. Another hour gone. Uraraka's Quirk was a bit more of an interesting one, but he came up with a few ideas. Because of how different her own Quirk was, he had to spend a couple of hours thinking about how useful her ability was, though he did had the idea that she had said she wanted to do from the first day they met – And that was to help with her family and their construction work.

Five hours into his note-taking, and it was already two o'clock in the morning. The time had sped by like a bullet train, so quickly it left Izuku with eyes wide open. He knew that he was going to regret doing this come morning, but he found himself compelled to keep making notes, while they were still fresh in his mind. He sharpened his pencil again, and, deciding that he would complete one more student and their Quirk, Izuku sketched in another one of his dorm mates.

Kirishima and his Quirk, Hardening. While Kirishima might not be the nicest person, and his Quirk might not be the flashiest, though in their current age, this was probably a good thing, but Izuku was certain that with the right attitude, it could become an extraordinary Quirk, that rivalled Explosion or Acid.

Izuku had an idea. He had a plan to help change this world, to change the perception of Quirks within society. He knew that it was tough, and that it was probably going to wind up getting himself killed if he wasn't careful enough… But all the same, when he thought about it, it made his blood pump.

He didn't mean to, but he ended up doing another students. And another…. And another… These notes would act as his research, as his training. As long as he taught himself all of this, then it wouldn't matter. He had a goal, and he had a plan on how to achieve it.

He could do this.

* * *

"Midori? Midoriya?"

A number of light knocks against the door that lead into Izuku's room echoed through his room and into the corridor, all of which went totally without response. It made Mina flinch for a couple of seconds, hovering her hand over his door without movement, formed into a fist, the knuckles just a few inches from the wooden door. That silence did actually kind of freak her out for a few moments. The dorms they were now residing in weren't exactly the most secure place, especially not for the resident 'Quirkless' student. The idea that someone had done something highly regrettable and hurt Izuku in some way wasn't exactly beyond the realms of possibility.

That fear did seep its way into Mina's head for a short while. Everyone here had a claim to do something like that at the very least, there wasn't anything to suggest that they weren't going to follow through with their threats, aside from appealing to basic Human decency, and even that would evaporate away when faced with enough prejudicial garbage throughout one's life. Particularly not when those who had a grudge had the benefits of superpowers at their hands, and could pretty easily do this to a Quirkless person if they wanted to.

Before she let herself fall into a panic, Mina reached for her phone in her pockets – A phone that, before she had actually begun to attend Yuuei, Izuku's mother had generously gifted her with, for use in the middle of emergencies, with the instruction to use them to stick together and to watch out for one another.

If this counted or not, Mina wasn't sure, but she sure didn't particularly care at this particular moment. Scrolling through the contacts, she quickly gave the phone that Izuku had a call, hoping that, if this was just a simple, harmless case of him still being asleep, that the ring would snap him awake, and put an end to this silly little worry that was in her head. So they could go about their first day of classes at Yuuei.

As was expected, she heard the ringing from inside the room, which gave her a slight feeling of elation… Though it died as quickly as it arrived. The ring came, and then it faded, and Izuku's presence wasn't made any clearer or not.

"What the fuck're you doing?"

As soon as the ringtone from behind the door came to an end, Katsuki came walking down the corridor, having just left his own room. He was glaring towards Mina with a single eyebrow quirked slightly upwards to indicate his confusion, and the iris of the same red eye was fixed on Izuku's door. Katsuki made his way over to stand next to Mina without saying anything else.

"Midoriya isn't answering the door, or his phone." Mina told him, glancing from him back to the door, before knocking on the door again, hitting it three times solidly in the hopes of getting a response. "Oh, come on, Midoriya, you in there?" She didn't get an answer, once again. It was starting to worry her. "D'you think something happened to him?"

"Oh for God's sake, move aside." Katsuki sighed, reaching into his pockets, and stepping in such a way that he effectively pushed Mina away from the door handle. He seemed exasperated, almost bored of this. Was this a common occurrence? He didn't seem particularly worried, and in fact, seem agitated by Mina's worry that it may be due to some sort of incident regarding the other students. After routing around for a few moments, from his pockets, the Explosion Quirk user produced a single key, which he inserted into the keyhole, twisted counter-clockwise twice, and unlocked the door.

Why he just had a spare key to Izuku's room, Mina would ask at another time.

Instead of opening the door like any regular person would though, Katsuki instead opted to launch a front-kick against it with his right leg, slamming the door open with speed with such force it sounded like a car door. The sheer impact made Mina instinctively jump back, despite watching the entire thing occur literally a few inches in front of her. "Yo, Deku, time to fuckin' go, let's move!"

"Gaaaah!"

Shooting up with a scream, the black haired boy rose not from his bed, but rather, from a hunched over position at his desk, still in pyjamas that he had changed into from the previous night. Surrounding him, a mess of pencils, pencil shavings and sharpeners, open notebooks, some blank, and one he had apparently fallen asleep on and sued as a pillow. On the side of his face was a number of dark grey stains, all graphite in nature, from Izuku having apparently rested his head on the carbon based mineral found in pencils. When he shot up, he looked dazed for a short period, like he had no idea what was going on, where he even was, or what reality he was even in. He was a wreck, to put it as simply as possible, and Katsuki didn't even look surprised.

Something that Mina noticed about his room was the fact that, despite it being tidy and neat, Izuku hadn't actually unpacked anything that he had brought with him, except maybe a few notebooks and clothes. Nor had he even begun to unpack any of the supplies that were provided to each student by default, such as duvets and pillows, or even his school uniform yet. It looked like a room someone was still moving into, being clean and spotless, yet messy and a garbage dump at the same time.

As for the recently Quirked boy himself, he needed to blink a few times before he even looked in the right direction to see Katsuki and Mina looking at him, Mina's expression bewildered, like he had grown an extra head, caught his eye in particular, and he gulped. Stood next to Katsuki, who didn't even show much emotion other than his usual barely surprised rage created a dichotomy that had Izuku confused as it did concerned.

"W-What's going on?"

"You fuckin' stayed up late again, didn't you?" Katsuki groaned, stepping into the room without any invitation. His exasperation apparently coming from this occurring multiple times, the fact he hadn't seemed too worried up until this point suddenly made a hell of a lot more sense to the pink girl, still somewhat unfamiliar with how they interacted with one another. They were brusque, particularly in Katsuki's case, to the point where they would appear borderline hostile to those who didn't know the extent of their relationship.

"I-I guess so." Izuku chuckled nervously with a weak smile on his face. He looked embarrassed, small red tints underneath the greys of smudged pencil markings becoming clear. He quickly scratched the back of his head awkwardly with one hand out of habit, while his other hand seemed to be moving to clear up some of the stuff he had been working on.

Walking over to his desk, and peering over his shoulder, Mina saw the inside of the sketchbook Izuku had apparently fallen asleep on. Too distracted by his conversation with Katsuki, Izuku didn't see or stop her from seeing what he had done the previous night. What she saw inside… She wasn't sure if it impressed her, or freaked her out.

It was a sketch of her on one page, with annotations leading towards her various visual traits, such as her horns. Detailed next to that were a bunch of what she assumed were theories as to what they were made out of – He'd accurately guessed that they were made of bone. He also did this for her skin colour, her eyes, and her naturally pink hair. To the side of these annotations, were details regarding her Acid Quirk, based on what she'd told him about it. It included how she had the ability to choose what sort of Acid she secreted, as well as her ability to control its viscosity and its overall strength.

To be honest… It was kind of freaky.

"Uh… Midori?" She muttered, not sure if she should be concerned for her safest of if Izuku had just found a really bizarre hobby. "What uh… Why the heck am I in your note book?"

"Huh?" Turning back around to face his friend, and then following her line of sight down to his notebook, Mina could have sworn that his ears were starting to turn red. "O-Oh! U-U-Um…."

"The fuck?" Making his way over to look for himself, Katsuki leaned over to see the drawing that Izuku had done. He stared at the sketch and information for a good solid fifteen seconds before he even blinked, and looked down towards his best friend. Equally as confused as Mina was, he echoed her question, in a more trademark way befitting his personality. "Deku, what the hell is this?"

"Guess I can't really hide it…" Izuku sighed, still red in the cheeks and ears, though the graphite smears made him look more like a mad artist than it did a flustered teenager. Turning to face his own works, he began to slip through the pages of the previously empty notebook, going over their group primarily, Katsuki on the next page, then Todoroki, then Uraraka… Then he moved on to their other dorm mates. Kirishima, Kaminari, Asui. He had added what very little regarding their Quirks he knew, leaving space for new information as he discovered it. Not everyone was in the notebook pages that the naturally Quirkless boy showed the pair, but it was enough to make his intentions to add everyone in there clear. "They're notes on everyone and all their Quirks. I'm using them to study all the Quirks that are around us."

"You're studying Quirks?" Mina inquired, taking another look at the sketches Izuku had done. The page had randomly landed on Todoroki's page, and the amount of information Izuku had regarding the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk was surprisingly limited, if only because what information there was available on Hybrid type Quirks was extraordinarily rare.

In actual fact, they seemed to be less like notes than they did to be a documentation on all the Quirks that surrounded Izuku and his friends daily. They seemed more like profiles on each person too, acting almost like a case study at the same time. To an outsider, someone who didn't know how Izuku's mind worked, and what his intentions were, it would look like he was conducting research onto how Quirks affected people. In a way, he kind of was, since this stuff did fascinate him, but that wasn't what he was really aiming to do.

And while his efforts were impressive, the detail that his notes went into extensive, and his documentation work almost to a professional standard… The pink girl didn't get… "Why though?"

"I've… Got an idea." The black haired boy admitted. Although he had a grin on his lips, he let out a long sigh. He honestly hadn't wanted any of his friends to know about what it was he was thinking, if only because it would prove to be dangerous for them if they knew and wanted to join in on the action. "I… I think I have a way to help change attitudes towards people with Quirks. But to do it… I need as much information on as many various Quirks as I can find."

An idea.

Ever since Izuku and Katsuki had begun their attempts to protect the Quirked population, wherever they came across them, they had never really had a plan. They had a goal. A dream. Something that they wanted to achieve with what they did. That being said, there was never any plan that they had, other than help as many Quirked people as possible, stop Quirkless bigots from treating the Quirked like dirt, and hoping for the best. They never had anything more than that.

It had been their way of defying the hatred and the prejudice in the world. Their way of fighting against the inequality and the discrimination that Katsuki himself had been subject to. It was their effort to create that little bit of peace and unity between the Quirked and the Quirkless. They hadn't hoped to do that much against the system, despite their dream.

Getting into Yuuei was the ultimate symbol of defiance, and meeting Toshinori had been what had sparked Izuku's desire to seriously change the world, like he could fix the mess that was the current society. The real drive that Izuku got to change the hate between the Quirked and the Quirkless had begun when Toshinori had told him that he had the power to change hearts and minds.

And with it, Izuku had thrown himself more and more into protecting innocent Quirked people…

But he never had a plan, nothing organized. Nothing large scale. Nothing… Nothing that Izuku sounded like he was implying.

"What idea?" Katsuki questioned.

Izuku hadn't shared this idea with Katsuki? If Mina hadn't been paying attention before, she certainly was now. This was the first time she had heard of him keeping a secret like this from Katsuki. With the sole exception of him not mentioning that he may receive a Quirk, for fear that Katsuki would violently oppose the idea, and as it turned out, these fears were justly founded, Izuku told Katsuki pretty much everything that he was thinking when it came to Quirked people.

"I came up with it last night." Explained the green eyes boy, clarifying any thoughts that he had been hiding his thoughts from the group as they arrived into Mina and Katsuki's heads. "Actually, I got the idea because of something you said, Ashido."

"Me?"

"Yeah!" With a nod and brighter smile spreading from his previously smaller one, Izuku responded enthusiastically towards the Acid Quirk user, grateful for planting the idea into his head, even if it hadn't been done intentionally, and no doubt it hadn't been. "I was thinking about it all night while I was making these sketches, thinking what I'd need to do… And, well, I decided that I need to figure out how to the One For All Quirk without injuring myself."

The backlash received for using such a powerful Quirk was one that remained present in the three teenager's minds, and clearly made the one who actually had that power inside him shiver. The mere prospect of using One For All wasn't exactly an enticing one to him, but if he wanted his idea to work, if he wanted to prove that it could work… He'd have to get used to using it. And getting used to using it so his bones didn't break.

He'd never felt more grateful that he had followed Toshinori-sensei's training regime for the last two years. The vast arrays of muscles and the refined physical ability he now boasted would finally be coming in handy. According to his teacher, the stronger his body was, the quicker he would be able to contain the Quirk, and unleash it faster.

So that was good news.

"Deku, what the hell have you got planned here?..." The blond haired boy inquired, far calmer than Izuku himself would have expected. He almost sounded like he was contemplating information that he hadn't even heard yet. Like he'd already foreseen where his friend was going with this…

"I'll tell you after classes." The previously Quirkless boy said, standing upright, and pushing some of his various notebooks to the side. "If we don't get going, we're going to end up being late."

Unable to stop herself giggling lightly, Mina rested her hand on her hips. He had been so out of it, he hadn't even checked the time when he'd been so violently woken up. "We're pretty much late already. Not like it's a rush anymore."

* * *

Remarkably, the three of them had managed to get their way over to the classrooms on time, with minutes, if not seconds, to spare. The corridor itself was massive, and a couple of other students who were running late on their first day jogged past them, headed in the opposite direction. Each door had a sign that indicated the room number and letter, number indicating the year, and the letter indicating the room itself.

By the time they actually arrived in the room, everyone else had already chosen their seats, clumped up into various groups and social circles that had already been established within the dorms. As soon as the surprisingly large door to the classroom slid open, all conversations, regardless of topic, or who was involved in them, ceased instantly. Eyes fell on the 'Quirkless' Izuku Midoriya, and the Quirked lackeys that he apparently had managed to manipulate, bribe, or just sob-story his way to his side.

That's what the looks felt like they were suggesting anyway. They felt accusatory. Almost like they felt he was mocking them in some way.

What right did a Quirkless person have in a school designed for Quirked people? A safe haven for Quirked students. Those looks, those glares, they kept repeating themselves to Izuku, over and over again, no matter where he was or what he had done. They felt he was a trespasser in territory that was supposed to belong exclusively to Quirked people.

Even in a prison, at least the Quirked would have been surrounded by their own. That was the silver lining that many of the students seemed to think. At least in a prison, they would be surrounded by people who understood. At least in a prison, they wouldn't have to keep looking over their backs for the moment that a worthless pile of prejudicial garbage in Human flesh tried to stab them in the back. To treat them like dirt. To treat them like animals.

At least in prison, they had some sort of rights. Not with Izuku there though.

He was like a warden, acting out and striking people who couldn't fight back whenever he felt like it. No mistake was to be made. If they used their Quirks and the teachers caught wind of it, they would be thrown out. The only reason that Izuku hadn't ratted out all of Class 1-A in the dorms yesterday when they showed off their Quirks was because he would also be getting rid of the ones he'd tricked into thinking he was a half decent person.

That was what Kirishima thought. The poisonous glare he gave Izuku as he entered the room conveyed all of that brutally clearly. And his sentiment wasn't unique. Glares from all sorts of people made their way towards Izuku, making their feelings of animosity to him clear.

If they weren't clear enough already.

"Midoriya! Bakugou! Ashido!" A familiar, peppy, and for once, friendly female voice in the form of Uraraka. Stood onto her tip-toes, and totally disregarding any of the odd looks that she received for being so welcoming and energetic, she waved over the trio over to her location.

At the opposing end of the room, nearest to the windows, thankfully, Uraraka and Todoroki sat next to one another, a series of seats located around them. People had sat around the two of them, so it seemed likely that they had preserved the three seats specifically for the three of them, anticipating this sort of situation of hostility from their other classmates. Two of these seats were on the middle row, just in front of Uraraka and Todoroki, and one further down was free, though the person who would end up taking that seat would have to sit next to…

Kirishima. Of course.

Not that Todoroki and Uraraka had intentionally done this, that much was bluntly obvious. Kirishima had probably decided on his place before they had even arrived, and getting him to move…. Well, no one particularly wanted to try and anger him. Outspoken and aggressive, he'd made a very strong first impression to all his classmates the previous night, and an even stronger one to Izuku and those who had seen him attack the 'Quirkless' student.

Katsuki didn't hesitate though. Without a single word, he made his way past both Mina and Izuku, and made a beeline straight for the seat on the front row of the class, and right next to the Hardening Quirk user. Dropping his bag on the floor by his seat, he exchanged a glare with the spiky haired red-head, and then basically collapsed into his seat, throwing his feet onto the desk for further measure. Not exactly a great habit he had, even back when before he developed his Quirk.

"Well….That sorted that out quickly." Mina commented upon seeing this, before nudging Izuku with her elbow and then making her way to one of the two remaining seats, taking the one furthest from the window, and just behind Uraraka, whom she turned around and engaged in conversation with virtually immediately.

Following closely behind her, Izuku had stopped just next to Katsuki, all the while receiving a death-stare from Kirishima, who he tried his best to ignore, and gave a wide-berth when he walked past his desk. Stopping right next to Katsuki, who didn't look up at his friend, Izuku raised his concern.

"Are you sure about this one, Kacchan?" He questioned, understanding from his body language alone that Katsuki wasn't exactly pleased about being next to Kirishima. He had already grown a distaste for the Hardening Quirk user that truly was outright hostile. He feared that if left to their own devices, they might end up going at one another again, Quirks and all. Their mutual hate of one another aside, being up at the front made Katsuki slightly more alienated from the rest of the group. He wasn't totally out of the circle, but he was on the outskirts of it as opposed to being inside of the figurative circle.

"I'll be fine." Responded Katsuki, shifting in his seat slightly. " _I…"_ He said, putting special emphasis on himself, loud enough so that Kirishima would probably be able to hear it. "…Won't start anything."

Kirishima just growled, but he didn't say anything.

"Besides, who's got a better chance if shit does start? Me, or your 'Quirkless' ass?" Bluntly put, though it was accurate. "Don't worry 'bout it, Deku. Get sat down." Katsuki reiterated with a light sigh, pointing towards the group with his thumb, still not looking at Izuku, or any of the aforementioned group.

Arguing further wouldn't prove any different results… Because logic dictated that Katsuki was actually right. Logically, it made sense that someone like him, or someone who could at the very least, control their Quirk, sat by the person who was most likely to flip out and attack Izuku… And Katsuki had his Quirk perfectly down. If he restrained himself properly, he probably had the one that would cause the least damage, while inflicting the most damaging result.

So, albeit reluctantly, Izuku nodded, and made his way into the only spare seat in the entire classroom, next to Mina, in front of Todoroki, and behind Katsuki. When he actually had a proper look at his group, he realized something – He was the most protected out of all of them. With someone at every side of his, except for the wall, they had all set themselves up in such a way that he was essentially surrounded by his friends who could jump up and defend him if the need arose.

It wasn't necessary… But he was grateful that they had done this intentionally – And there wasn't any doubt it was intentional. Katsuki, and to a lesser extent Mina, hadn't hesitated for a second when they saw the other two. It made sense, since he couldn't control his Quirk quite yet… And he had a feeling that they weren't going to budge on their stance either.

As he sat there, waiting for the classes to start, absently listening to the conversation Mina and Uraraka were trying to have, and admirably trying to involve Katsuki and Todoroki in on, he did some basic addition. Glancing over the class, he did a re-count. Twenty people in Class 1A.

At least eleven classes were available for first years. Each class was filled up with twenty pupils each, if 1A's dorm was to be a valid comparison. Not taking into account those classes that had one or two extra, or less that made for a grand total of two-hundred-and-twenty students who were in the first year.

Two-hundred-twenty. Two-hundred-twenty Quirked students, all of them under sixteen.

And if he applied that same math to every year, the Seconds and the Thirds…

That all added up to… That was six-hundred-sixty Quirked people, who weren't even legal adults yet. There were a lot more of them there than Izuku honestly thought existed in all of the province, never mind just Tokyo, and never mind those who weren't even legally old enough to take care of themselves.

And every one of them, possessing some sort of unique ability, had been shoved into this pen, like they were animals. Some had come of their own accord, like Mina, Uraraka and Todoroki, while others had just been told they basically had this, or prison, as their options, like Katsuki. Though he personally knew more people who had gone along with the former option, Uraraka and Mina having travelled from their respective locations just to attend, Izuku knew that more people, Kirishima probably included in that long list, had the former thrown at them.

The number of Quirked people here amazed him.

Their circumstances didn't though. They were depressingly routine.

But it highlighted further the need for change. Modern society really was in dire need of some serious re-evaluation regarding the way it treated Quirked people. Anti-Quirked laws were just more and more highlighted as the days passed, convincing him that someday, someone might try to just outlaw Quirks period. That the people who were born with them would just be herded and thrown into some sort of huge concentrated cell. The fact he even felt these things could someday happen… It just kept proving itself. The need for change. The changes Izuku wanted to help bring around, as quickly as he possibly could.

Examples of Pro-Quirked, anti-Quirkless factors also just further proved the need for these changes. Terror cells, people who were using their Quirks to commit acts of large scale terrorism in response to the anti-Quirked laws…

No side was guilt free in this mess.

And it just further highlighted these needs, before the Quirked and Quirkless tore one another apart.

Izuku's idea was as good as any.

"Alright, settle down."

A gritty, almost bored and monotonous voice suddenly shot itself into the room, which was already fairly quiet, bar a few small conversations and internal thinking done by the more contemplative like the black haired boy. From the doorframe, a scruffy dishevelled looking man stood, looking like he was already tired, despite it being early morning. Izuku recognised him as one of the many staff members Yuuei was hiring, and had even talked to this one many times. He knew his name, and his Quirk.

Walking into the room, clearly not dressed like someone who was supposed to be teaching a class filled with people who had superpowers that could easily kill a man, said man spoke with a disinterested tone, and scratching the stubble he had on his chin. "I'm Shoto Aizawa, your homeroom teacher. Before we get started, by law I'm required to make you aware of several rules that Yuuei has made mandatory."

Some of the uttering resumed again, with various pupils throwing in their questions that they internally debated with one another. Questions of if it was to do with their Quirks, to do with leaving the school grounds, to do with regulations or visitors, or various other things that one would need to establish. Others wondered if they were regular things that any live-in school would have to go over if they wanted their pupils to behave as was expected.

"That took you all fifteen seconds to calm down." Aizawa stated, once the mutters had died down. "Not a rational reaction at all."

His reaction almost made Izuku want to laugh. Ever since he'd met Aizawa, he'd known him to be a man who basically lived his life by the laws of rationality, the opinions of others be damned. It was just how he was. He knew him to be very angry at the anti-Quirked laws in the world, arguing the benefits of Quirks and how they could help society.

When he bothered to argue the point. Most times he just didn't see much point in explaining his opinions to a Quirkless boy, no matter his dedication or sympathy to the Quirked. Speaking of which, he had, no doubt, been surprised to see Izuku's name on his register once he'd received it. During discussion he'd had with Toshinori, he'd openly called the idea irrational. He claimed that the Quirked kids couldn't be trusted to accept anyone who was Quirkless in close proximity to them.

He turned out to be right, as history had proven. He probably disliked the notion of Izuku being in the class for that very reason, suspecting that it would cause disruptions, though the choice hadn't been his to make, so he was just going to have to make the most of it.

Based on his personality, he probably saw no logic in fighting a decision that had already been made and finalized.

Clearly he was being forced to say things he didn't particularly agree with. He looked bored, and like he was pained to even say these things aloud, reading them from the sheet of paper he had brought into the room, crumpled up and taken from his pockets. As he spoke, he fumbled his hand through his messy, long hair. "First off, use of Quirks during school hours are forbidden, unless explicitly given a reason to do so… this is so that the stability of the school can be kept without any cause for concern among the students or the faculty… Anyone found using a Quirk within the school grounds shall be harshly dealt with, and the extent of the use of the Quirk may lead to legal persecution. Basically, don't use your Quirks and you'll be fine." He added on at the end, deviating from his script to give them the more cut and dry version of what they'd just heard.

That one wasn't particularly surprising. Use of Quirks wasn't exactly allowed, given then the place was a Quirkless prison.

"There is a place for practicing your Quirks if you need a work-out, but according to the law, I have to tell you that these sessions will be recorded, and a board of directors will be reviewing them and if they have concerns, they'll be bringing them to the school." Aizawa muttered before he moved on. "Second of all, regarding leaving the school premises – You are allowed to exit the school whenever you choose to do so, however, there are several restrictions that will be applied to you for such a privilege."

Freedom of movement had been a concern for many students. Vague promises and the likes had been made, that were supposed to find a clear middle ground between students and the Quirkless population… To do this though, the Quirked would inevitably wind up being the ones who were screwed over.

Repeating the same words that were on the sheet in front of him, Aizawa continued, with equal looks disgust as disinterested resignation. "The first condition will be if a student desires to leave the school grounds, they are required to remain in uniform at all times. Failure to do so will lead to criminal persecution."

The uniforms.

Of course. That was the most obvious way to do it, to identify the ones who didn't have any particularly obvious tells that they had Quirks. Like Izuku.

Essentially a way or marking them all out, so people knew what they were. Making them stand out, so people knew that the Quirked were around, and to stay clear of them, all while saying that they were being kind to the Quirked by not restricting their movement to just within the walls of Yuuei. They'd permitted the absolute least amount they could get away with and still claim they weren't impeaching on the freedoms of the Quirked citizens.

"Secondly, students will be only permitted to leave the grounds between Nine AM and Seven PM. Anyone outside the grounds at this time will also be pursued as criminals, and students are to obey any instructions given to them – If a store owner tells you to get out, get out. And finally, because I've been told to tell you, I need to disclose my own Quirk." Running his fingers down a list, he called out a name at random. "Katsuki Bakugou?"

"Here." Katsuki announced, raising his hand lightly to he made his location clear to the scruffy looking excuse of a homeroom teacher stood before him.

"The register here says your Quirk is called Explosion. I want you to try activating your Quirk." As their homeroom teacher said all of this, Izuku noted his eye colour change, from a dark hazel that bordered onto outright black, to a more blood-red colour, like blood. Given the contrast between the two, it wasn't a change that went unnoticed.

Obeying the instructions given to him, Katsuki held open his palm, and underwent the proceed he typically went through when it came to activating his Quirk – The forced secretion of explosive compounds, and then, a mere desire to do so would normally cause the huge explosions within Katsuki's.

Except it didn't happen. Instead, nothing happened, aside from Katsuki just looking at his hands like he'd just seen a ghost inhabit his limbs. "What the fuck? Why won't my Quirk activate?"

"That's my Quirk." Aizawa stated, blinking, and allowing his eyes to return to their natural shade. "My Quirk is called Erasure, meaning I can cause any of your Quirks to refuse to activate. Essentially, if you try to attack me, or anyone else in the school, I'll be the one called in to stop you from using your Quirks. So don't bother, use your heads."

Erasure. That Quirk was what had gotten Aizawa the job here, Izuku was absolutely certain of it. The government would leap at someone who had the ability to nullify Quirks. To be frank, he was amazed that they hadn't inducted him into some sort of secret service that took on groups that had multiple members with dangerous Quirks. Perhaps it was because legally, Quirked people had very few job prospects, and military didn't even come close to trusting the Quirked.

Still, his Quirk was incredible, and in this society, exceptionally useful… For the Quirkless.

Everyone in the room that hadn't been expecting it seemed quite taken aback by this ability. Although a few of the more craft students noted that Aizawa hadn't mentioned any of his limitations or weaknesses. Already trying to find loopholes.

"All the teacher in Yuuei have Quirks that are designed to put you down if you get out of hand." Aizawa flatly said. "I'm sure most of you have figured this out already, but you are in what amounts to a prison. My job is to essentially make sure that none of you cause any trouble, and all the teachers here have the same job."

"So what, you're just bowing to the Quirkless?!" Kirishima's voice rose up, and he had hardened his hand, which he slammed onto his desk to punctuate his point clearly. He was angered by the mere suggestion that not all Quirked people seemed willing to fight against the Quirkless, but rather submit to them. "Haven't you even got a shred of pride in yourself?!"

With a raised eyebrow, but a dismissed sigh, Aizawa seemed to not even be phased. He'd seen this sort of attitude before, no doubt, and he'd seen how poorly it had ended for anyone who follow the path Kirishima seemed to be on. Regardless though, he couldn't do anything to argue against Kirishima's beliefs or ideals. As a teacher, he wasn't allowed to, even if he were teaching a classroom of people who weren't all freaks in the eyes of society. "Debating the argument is pointless." Dismissed the Erasure Quirk user, before reaching over to his register. "Given the state of our society, the best that you can hope for is to make the best of a bad situation. Right now, the Quirkless are the ones keeping you fed and putting a roof over your head. If we like the situation or not is irrelevant..."

He paused.

"…Ejirou Kirishima." He said again, looking on his register. "Before you were admitted into Yuuei, you had several accounts of illegal Quirk use in public, several of assault and battery, and resisting arrest. You've been in jail several times, correct?"

A straight up criminal record. It wasn't questionable that many others had such a record. Katsuki himself had one, but he was able to avoid the worst of it because Izuku had supported him. Kirishima hadn't had that, it seemed. "That wasn't my fault."

"It doesn't matter whose fault it was. Now that you're here, you need to understand that if you act out while outside the school, the people who suffer for it won't be just you. It will be every single Quirked person in the school that suffers. If you want to actually help the Quirked here, don't make life difficult for us."

Resignation seemed to be what was dictating what Aizawa said right now. It was depressing to say the least about how much Aizawa seemed to just accept the horrible situation that the Quirked were in… But he wasn't wrong either. As thing stood right now, the Quirkless had virtually all of the power. Anything that the Quirkless wanted to do the Yuuei, or the students within it, they could do. And all it would take was one slip up, one person to screw it up, one person who would end up ruining everyone's lives.

And logically, Kirishima seemed to be the person who would do that, judging by everything he'd said and done.

And he seemed to concede the point, angrily, and growled in defeat. Of course, in no way was he even close to giving up, nor had his mind been magically changed… But the logic used against him was solid and indisputable. It wasn't anything he could argue again, and he knew it. So he dropped the discussion. At least for now.

"I'm going to call out your names and your Quirks now." The homeroom teacher declared, sitting back down behind his desk with the sheet of paper still in his hands, which he glossed over several times before returning his attention back to his class. "Just say 'Yes sir' or something, and raise your hand if the information about you is correct."

Without further ado, he began.

"Katsuki Bakugou, Quirk, Explosion."

"Yeah."

"Ejirou Kirishima, Quirk, Hardening."

"…Right."

"Mina Ashido, Quirk, Acid."

"Yep!"

"Shouto Todoroki, Quirk, Half-Cold-Half-Hot."

"Yes sir."

"Momo Yaoyarouz, Quirk, Creation."

"Yes sir."

"Kyoka Jirou, Quirk, Earphone Jack."

"Here, sir."

"Izuku Midoriya…" That name was what caused Aizawa to pause for a second, and look towards the black haired boy. As established, the two of them had met multiple times, and Aizawa knew for a fact that Izuku had been born totally Quirkless. Seeing him on the list, with the Quirk that Toshinori-sensei was supposed to have… It didn't even take him a second to figure out what had happened. It was most likely he didn't agree with the choice, but he didn't seem to allow this to interfere with his job. He didn't bring attention to it, and instead just listed off the Quirk as he was supposed to. "…Quirk, One For All."

"Y-Yes sir!" Izuku responded shakily, but relieved that Aizawa didn't seem to be bringing attention to the Quirk.

"Are you kidding me?!" Once more, Kirishima erupted, causing Aizawa to sigh again in exasperation, and for everyone else to look at Kirishima like he was fit to explode. "He's Quirkless, we all know about the reaction to the Toe Test when he showed up here! Why the hell are you pretending that he has a Quirk when we all saw proof that he doesn't?!"

"You don't really understand this 'Don't cause trouble' concept, do you?" Muttered Aizawa. "If Midoriya being here bothers you, I suggest complaining to the headmaster. I don't have any control over him being here. I'm just reading out what's in front of me. If you want someone to talk to, go to the headmaster."

* * *

Kirishima ended up doing exactly that.

Homeroom, and classes, ended at the same time as any other school would end their sessions. The majority of the day had basically been an introduction to all of the teachers, their Quirks, and what they would be covering. Aizawa would be going over the suitable use of Quirks in modern society, how to get permits to use them in extraordinarily rare circumstances, and appropriate use of them in various situations. Essentially he was the guy who was telling them how to use their Quirks in society.

Other teachers taught more traditional subjects, though nothing about the teachers themselves was particularly traditional. They had some weird rat-mouse-thing called Nedzu, who was literally an animal that taught Science. It was… Frankly, all the students felt like they were on some sort of drug trip for the absurdity of it. Another teacher who was called Ken Ishiyama was the one who taught Literature. He was a disturbingly blocky person, who had a Quirk that allowed him to control and manipulate cement. There were others that Kirishima couldn't be bothered to remember right now. He only had one thing on his mind.

Midoriya had been present since yesterday, and he'd seen the whole mess when the alarm went off, and saw his Quirkless identification. He'd watched it all unfold, before they actually let in the Quirkless bastard.

And then he'd shown up in the same dorm as him… And with justified anger, Kirishima had attacked him.

Because it reminded him of why he hated the Quirkless.

When he was younger, Kirishima had lived in a small village in the Chiba province of Japan. He was young when his Quirk activated, scarring him just above his right eye. But when it had activated, his family had been surprisingly accepting of his ability. They hadn't called him a freak of any kind, though some expressed concern regarding his teeth, thinking that they meant he would bite them. None of those concerns ever came to be true though. Ridiculous fears from ridiculous people being ridiculous. But they went away after a while, when they interacted with Kirishima more and more, and realized that he wasn't some carnivorous monster with a taste for human flesh. That he wasn't some sort of vampire or animal that acted on instinct. That he was just a regular person, through and through. He just possessed an ability to do something that no one else could.

He remembered that his grandparents hated him when he was younger and they just discovered he had a Quirk. Less than a year later, they had apologized for their actions. He'd forgiven them instantly and persuaded them to push him on the swings for half an hour as a make-up present.

As far as Quirked people went, Kirishima was amazingly lucky. He had been accepted by his family, and still had a roof over his head. His parents till treated him like he was their son, not some kind of monster as the horror stories on the media had reported. Some truly horrible things had happened in the world. But none of them had happened to Kirishima. Because he was lucky. Because his family actually cared about him beyond his Quirk.

Because his Quirk wasn't what had defined him.

Not that it lasted, and when he thought about what had happened… It made him want to throw up.

At the age of eight, he encountered the first time someone who had a prejudice against the Quirked. The meeting was brief as it was terrifying for the young Hardening Quirk user, and to be honest, he barely remembered any of it. The guy, he didn't remember a thing about him. Looking back on it, all he saw on the guys face was a black shadow that covered up any identifiable features.

All he truly remembered was the fact that with that meeting, that man had tried to smash in his face with a rock.

He managed to hit Kirishima once just above his right eye, before he'd managed to activate his Quirk in self-defence. Not that it had stopped the man from trying. Striking him again and again and again against rock-hard skin, but constantly hitting, hoping to cause him to bleed more. His family eventually caught up and chased the attacker away, but not before Kirishima had ended up with a nasty scar above his right eye, the one he had previously torn open, and now larger than before... It had been his first experience with true Quirkless hatred towards him…

But he hadn't let it define him. It had happened because some people were just jerks. They couldn't be responsible for the thoughts and feelings of all the Quirkless people in the world. And as time went on, Kirishima had forgotten about it.

At the age of thirteen, however, the memory came surging back into his head.

It was a Sunday night, and he'd spent the evening watching a wrestling match with his father and grandfather, while their respective wives had been in the kitchen discussion Yuuei, a school which had been announced recently that his mother was debating on sending him to or not, hoping that he would be able to meet people like him and make some friends in this world where being openly Quirked was virtually public suicide. In a place like Yuuei… At least he had a chance to meet other people like him.

A knock at the door had interrupted everything though. When answered, a man stood there in a trench coat, claiming that he had heard about a boy who was Quirked in the household. He revealed that he himself was also Quirked, and was wondering if he could meet someone, for the first time in his life, he claimed, who was in the same situation as he was.

Kirishima had been all too happy to meet this person. It was the very first time he himself had also met another Quirked individual, and he was excited to actually meet someone like that. Eagerly, he had run up to this twenty-something year old man, and shown him his Quirk, Hardening his skin on his arm to display what power he had.

Less than a second later, a large machete had been slashed across his face. Instinct had hardened his eyeball the second the machete had hit his skin, saving he vision, but not the skin around his eye.

In truth, he remembered little of what happened next.

Only that he was no longer at home anymore. Run away, as warned by his family while they fought off a group of Anti-Quirked bigots who and tracked down the young boy and attempted to kill him. He'd been told not to return… But he did anyway, a few hours later…

And found out that he had been orphaned. The Quirkless bigots had butchered his family, for daring to protect and defend him, like any family would their youngest child. Like they would for anyone who had done nothing wrong.

And they'd been killed.

And slaughtered.

And… it was by other Quirkless people. Like them.

And… They'd done nothing wrong…

Nothing…

And now… He was alone.

His family torn from him. For no reason other than the fact that some Quirkless people felt that anyone who had a Quirk, not matter their crimes, if any at all, or how young they were, deserved no life to live. That they didn't even count as Human and felt they could get away with killing him. They had felt no remorse for killing anyone who even protected him…

It had sparked that hate in Kirishima. That true, violent hate of all the Quirkless people on the planet.

All they were… Were bigots. Hate filled bigots who felt they should control how the world was.

People who murdered others without reason.

No.

Not even people.

Animals.

Creatures.

Disgusting vermin that weren't even alive.

That didn't deserve to be alive.

Yuuei had been a place shown to be a safe haven for the Quirked… So Kirishima went. He had nowhere else to go, and maybe, he'd find some people there who felt the same way he did regarding the Quirkless sons of bitches that infested this planet. People who had suffered as much as he had. People who wanted revenge. People who weren't going to let Humans just decided their lives anymore.

Kirishima didn't even really consider himself particularly Human anymore. To him, the Quirked were the next stage in evolution. An entirely new species that Humanity feared because they knew their time was up. The Quirked race was the next race in line to rule Earth, and the Humans knew it. Yuuei was a place set up to contain them – He knew that, of course he did… But they couldn't contain the Quirked, even if they tried. He wouldn't let them.

Humans were vermin on the planet. And the Quirked were the ones who were going to rule over it someday. And he'd stand by his Quirked kin until he died.

That was why he was furious at the mere sight of Midoriya in the dorms. A Quirkless stain who thought that he was worthy of being around Quirked people.

He was waiting for a chance to stab them in the back. That was all Midoriya was. That was all he would ever be.

Anyone who fell for the lie that he had a Quirk was an idiot.

Plain and simple.

But more importantly, why the hell was the headmaster hiding the fact he was Quirkless? Assuming that he was telling the truth about being born Quirkless himself, which Kirishima doubted, because even the most basic of idiots knew that Quirks couldn't be passed down from person to person except for genetically, what reason would their headmaster have for accepting a Quirkless person into the school?

Why?

He didn't get it.

So he was going to find out.

Approaching the door, Kirishima stopped, noting how large it actually was. He was pretty sure that one could fit an elephant through the door if they tried to. Every door in the school was like that, presumably so they could fit in anyone in the rooms, regardless of their shape or size because of their Quirks. Frankly, it was a ridiculously large door that by rights, probably wider than a freaking road was. It seemed almost excessive… But then again, Quirks were unpredictable.

Using a heavy hand, Kirishima banged on the door three times, loud enough that someone could probably hear it down the corridor if they listened well enough. He almost activated his Quirk, but decided against it, thinking that it probably wasn't worth the point it would make.

He waited a few seconds, before he heard a response. "Come on in."

Sliding the door open, the Hardening Quirk user entered the main office, surprisingly plain and barren, far more so than he had been expecting. Part of him had been expecting colour and all sorts of ridiculousness in the office, given their headmasters personality, but it was surprisingly straight forward.

The skinny man sat in his seat behind the desk, apparently with his Quirk deactivated. Papers on his desk suggested he had been doing a lot of paperwork, filing out certain things that needed to be addressed, and sending various files to the government agents who demanded it, along with medical reports and other stuff the Quirkless would be interested in.

"Ejirou Kirishima, isn't it?" Toshinori inquired, looking at the spiky haired student. "Aizawa told me that I should expect you to visit. He tells me you have a concern."

"What the hell is the school doing regarding Izuku Midoriya?" Kirishima bluntly asked, not even bothering to hide his contempt for the aforementioned student. Before an answer could even be given, he kept going on, listing off examples and things he didn't get. "The schools supposed to be for Quirked people only, not some Quirkless bastard to keep roaming the corridors. For all we know, he could try to stab one of us in our sleep, or he could be taking notes on us to figure out how to hurt us."

"I can promise you, young Midoriya won't do either of those things."

"Let's assume that's true – Why is the school pretending that he has a Quirk?"

"We're not pretending anything."

"We all saw his damn Toe-Test – He claims that he got his 'Quirk' from you, but that's garbage! You still have a Quirk, and he also has one, so this claim that a Quirk can be passed down is garbage!"

One For All was an odd Quirk, Toshinori admitted it. And he could see why someone would think like that. Embers resided in the body of the previous owner of One For All, but that didn't help the implications that a Quirk could be passed down easier to swallow. Frankly, they contradicted it, since it implied two people who weren't related had the same Quirk. Which wasn't how they worked…

Confusion was to be expected when it came to dealing with this particular power. Kirishima was angry, and according to his information, he had a deep hatred of the Quirkless. Seeing him her enough… Toshinori could see this to be true.

Even if it was justified hatred…

"So why the hell are you trying to cover for him?! What's he even worth to you?!"

…There wasn't a way to convince him that Izuku was a good person. No way to prove his genuinely good intentions. He didn't accept of believe, perfectly understandably, the functions of the Quirk One For all. Because Izuku couldn't control his Quirk without killing someone. And without that…. Then there would never be any way to prove his intent. To prove he willingly accepted a Quirk. To prove that he truly did want to help the Quirkless.

Because Kirishima… He wouldn't take the truth at face value.

"…I've told you what the truth is regarding Izuku Midoriya." Toshinori repeated. Lying and making excuses and doing anything else would help no one. It wouldn't help the cause, nor would it help Izuku. The only thing Toshinori could stand to do was reiterate information that he had already given. "It's your choice if you want to believe that or not."

"Well no, I don't." Kirishima stated firmly. "And I'll fucking find out what's going on myself if I have to… Sir."

* * *

"So… What's this idea about, Deku?"

Izuku had lead both Mina and Katsuki to the new work out sessions mentioned by Aizawa – They were basically boxes of concrete that had cameras in the corner, watching their every move. According to the government, Quirks were like limbs, in that they needed to be exercises in order to achieve better control with them. And they were right in a certain sense. The more one practiced their Quirk, the more one would be better at controlling it. That was why a certain level of excursive was compulsory – that and the fact that the watchers wanted to see what they could do in case things got messy… But it was negligible.

Izuku mentioned that they don't record sound, since they had no microphones, so they could be as loud as they wanted.

It was why Katsuki wasn't bothering to whisper. Not that he ever did, but the way Izuku was acting almost made it seem like it was a secret that no one else could ever know and they had to be super quiet or someone might here.

In truth, it wasn't far away from that idea.

"Okay…" Izuku said, with a grin appearing on his face. His genuine excitement was almost infectious, and he hadn't even explained what his idea was. "The idea I have… It would make Quirks a lot more used in society… And I think that if we do this right… It would actually solve a lot of hate against Quirked people. We'd have to be really careful… But if we are… We could even make Quirked people into Heroes."

"So… What is the plan?" Mina asked, tilting her head.

His grin just grew. "I just told you."


	10. Attack the Freaks!

" _...In other news, residents of the Chiyoda ward were left shocked today when the battered body of local Riku Kaito has been found with multiple stab wounds in his lower abdomen. His body was then left on the street for the locals to find in the early hours of the day. Mr. Kaito was then rushed to hospital, where he is expected to make a slow recovery. Reports, eyewitnesses and friends to the victim of this unprovoked attack claim that this was an attack that was done by Quirked locals. Mr. Kaito is a known member of the HDF, that's the Human Defence Force, and is vocal about his opposition to the high school for known Quirked students, Yuuei, claiming that its existence presents a danger to members of the city as a breeding ground for extremism._

 _This news comes just less than a day after an attack by Quirkless individuals on the high school, in which homemade tear gas was used to harm several students. The individuals responsible for this attack have been taken into protective custody. Members of this attack claimed to be merely retaliating for the unprovoked assault of Sora Reo, another member of the Human Defence Force, although no links to the high school have been proven._

 _In response to these violent attacks, in which many Quirkless people were harmed, the government has just this morning passed a law which makes any uses of Quirks completely illegal without the supervision and permission of law enforcers. People who are found to be using their Quirks will be sent to a jail cell without trial until a later date."_

Katsuki scowled at the news, disgusted by both the reporter for just conveying this absolute crap, and the actual news itself. Extended hatred did exist for the red haired man on the television screen though - The man was Todoroki's bastard of a father. The bi-coloured boy had no shortage of frankly horrific things to say about him. The kind of person he was… The Explosion Quirk user could feel his palms secreting their explosive liquid already, causing several small detonations within his palms.

Secondly, it was the news itself, and the absolute garbage that it was talking. To him, the intention of this was clear as crystal, and it pissed him off extraordinarily. This could have easily been an attack by someone Quirked, sure, but it could even have been done by someone Quirkless.

After all, this entire situation was being treated as though the Quirked were definitely the guilty party, and as a direct result, their ability to protect themselves had just been snatched from them.

For years, Quirked people had at the very least, the ability to protect themselves using their Quirks. It was one of the few rights that honestly, they could enjoy. Of course, it was extraordinarily for someone to claim that you had gone overboard, particularly when it came to Katsuki and his Quirk, but frankly, by the time anyone had even tried to mess with him, the argument had already been won. His Quirk was so powerful, that people usually just got the hell out of his way.

Now, if someone came at him with a metal pole and tried to beat his head in, he couldn't use his Quirk to protect himself if he wanted to avoid jail time. Instead he had to either fight them without his Quirk, or just run the hell away from them, because now it didn't matter who was in the right and who was in the wrong. People had less reason to fear the Quirked for the sheer amount they could do – Often the main thing that stopped someone from trying assault a Quirked person, whom had very few rights in the first place, was their right to use their abilities to keep themselves and others safe.

Technically, there had never been a law that allowed Quirked people to use their powers to keep themselves protected, but there were no laws against it either. Lack of law was basically an admission that Quirks could be used to protect themselves. Quirks weren't technically weapons, but a part of the biology of the person. When attacked, a person could use their hands to protect themselves, and Quirks were as fundamental a part of a person as a hand was. It gave the Quirked some protection at least. Something that they could take solace in, that made bigots think twice before trying to harass Quirked people – That those who had powers could protect themselves if they had to.

And that right had just been stripped from them. No matter what they did, all a Quirkless bigot needed to do now was provoke, or make them desperate them enough that they'd use their Quirks. And then they could just report it, and that Quirked person was utterly screwed.

It was possible that this had been a plan from the start! A Quirkless person could have even done this, and then blamed it on the Quirked. Hell, the guy who got stabbed could even be in on it! He was part of that toxic group, the Human Defence Force, this was just the kind of move he'd expect them to pull.

As much of a conspiracy theory sounding as it was, it wouldn't surprise Katsuki. The fact this guy was even still apparently alive was enough to warrant suspicion. Hatred of the Quirked really did run that deeply in their society, it really wasn't out of the question.

"Bastards."

Hearing that voice behind the sofa he was sat at, Katsuki turned around and saw the owner – Kirishima, stood behind it, with a scowl that reflected his own. He stood there without another word, like he was expecting some sort of response from the ash blond haired boy. Kirishima's normally spiked up hair was instead free of any gel, leaving it in a messy, red tangle that reached down to his shoulders.

About a day ago, had Kirishima come up to Katsuki and opened his mouth to him, the hot-tempered Explosion Quirk user would have blasted him away with his Quirk, his attitude regarding this particular person on the lines of outright prejudicial hostility. He hated this scumbag for how he treated Izuku, and if the guy thought that he was going to get away with it, well he could go straight to hell.

There was one reason, and one reason alone as to why he hadn't already obliterated Kirishima and sent him to kingdom come was because Izuku was so damn determined to 'Build bridges' that he requested Katsuki not do that to anyone.

Particularly not to Kirishima. Although he had to admit…

If there was one thing he would give to Kirishima, it was that he seemed to genuinely care about people who had Quirks – He didn't hide his distrust and overall disgust of the Quirkless for what they had done to people who had Quirks, and that was well documented. Yet at the same time, he wasn't about to stand by and let the Quirkless abuse the Quirked. He stood up and fought for them. Like he had the previous day.

Still, said previous day now felt like a set up almost. A way to make Izuku's stupid Hero plan more difficult.

* * *

Two weeks had passed since Yuuei had officially begun its lessons. The school was surprisingly normal, despite the plethora of superpowered students and staff members that occupied the high school. Classes were, for the most part, the same as one would expect in a normal high school, excluding classes on "Correct Quirk Usage" as held by Aizawa. These lessons were usually what reminded people of exactly where they were. That aside though, a lot of the students actually found themselves forgetting that they were in a place that was designed to keep them complacent.

Not a lot of them even really thought of the place as a prison anymore. A lot of the students had grown accustomed to the way Yuuei ran, and had accepted things the way they were. Many were actually happy, thrilled to be in a safe zone where they wouldn't just be assaulted for merely existing by an irrational hatred by an irrational Quirkless person. Many were glad to not be crawling, begging, and scrapping their way to their next meal. Many were happy to just have a roof over their heads.

A big long list of reasons why people had grown complacent and at peace with their effective entrapment at the school. A long list of reasons why people had willingly come here. Mina herself included. The sounds of not having to sleep under garbage anymore had been a very appealing one to her, so she understood very well why so many people would just be happy to let things keep playing out as they were. Hell, if she hadn't met Izuku and Katsuki, she'd probably be among those who were happy just to let things stay as they were.

"Ready, Ashido?"

Not now though.

The training rooms were long, concrete grey, featureless corridors that held nothing interesting in them. They were about twenty meters long by about ten meters across, roughly the same size as a shooting range, which gave them plenty of space to work with, presumably for those of the school who had long range Emitter Type Quirks. In the corner, the pair of curly haired teenagers had pushed aside all of the punching bags and targets for Mutant and Transformation type users, to give them enough space to work with as they trained. Stacked in a row-by-row manner, there were about thirty of these corridors all packed neatly together at the back of the school, each one of them having a security camera in the corner to monitor the activities that each student spent time on. They could watch all they liked – It wouldn't reveal anything about what their plans were.

Ever since Izuku had revealed his plan – His insane, reckless, hard-headed, short-sighted, impractical, impulsive, idealistic and God damn _amazing_ idea – Of training his Quirk to the point he could use it so he could live out everyone's childhood fantasy, Mina and he had been training for hours at the end of every day to make this idea come to life. Frankly, Mina was amazed that no one had had the idea before him to actually try this. They had literal superpowers, why hadn't this been their first thought?

Izuku's idea was so simple, and so childish, that it might actually help to change the minds of some of the Quirkless. It might help some of the hatred and negativity towards the Quirked. It might just help change a few minds, and show that Quirks did have a place in society.

That they did hold value. That people who had Quirks weren't just freaks, but could contribute to making this world so much better than it was.

And Izuku's idea was simple.

He wanted to become a Superhero. Like in the comics and Manga.

Pooling Acid into her hands, the least irritant, least corrosive, and least painful mix she could secrete, Mina got herself into a fighting stance, left leg forward, right leg back, and light on her feet. The goal of this particular drill that Izuku had come up with was simple – Mina would throw her Acid towards him, and he would attempt to dodge every incoming attack that she sent his way. It he was able to lay a hand on her, she would lose. If he got his before then however, Mina won. Training both his control over One For All, and Mina's accuracy in one go, the exercise maximized training in just a simple, straight-forward activity.

Not that Izuku had been able to even get a single victory against his pink skinned opponent yet.

"Ready when you are, Midori!" Mina called over, a small smile making its way onto her face as she got ready to strike.

Upon hearing those words, Izuku activated One For All – Every time he did that, no matter how often he'd used the Quirk, the feeling he got when the sheer power surged right into his veins and spread throughout his body, like he was being engulfed in pure energy and kinetic force. It was so alien to him that the adrenaline pumped though his veins even as the strength entered his body. The best way to describe it was that it made him shudder with anticipation whenever he used the power.

Sending that energy into his legs, and prioritizing it into his feet, Izuku pushed off of the ground below him, speeding towards Mina like he were a bullet and he'd just been tired from a sniper rifle. He was already so fast that he had to actively stop himself from blasting forward too quickly. Kicking his shoe downwards, and grabbing onto the friction that the ground was so generous to give, he was able to slow down his speed by a reasonable amount, though now he was skiing on gravel as opposed to darting towards his target.

At this moment, Mina took her opportunity, and threw her handful of Acid towards the black haired boy, like it were a dodgeball. Similarly, Izuku took his chances, and pushed against the ground again, this time at an angle to the left, so Izuku was able to move away from the incoming glob of liquid.

Another throw came from Mina's other hand, this time throwing her Acid like she were throwing a bucket of water, throwing it lengthways, to spread out as much as possible. In retaliation, Izuku ducked down until he was basically on his knees, whereupon he repeated the motion of pressing against the ground to augment his speed.

This time however, he found that he'd been unable to reach the ground, or to stop himself as he threw himself through the air.

And slamming face first into the wall on the tougher side of the room with a sickening 'Smack!'

"Oooh…" Hissing, Mina looked away, flinching and tightly closing her eyes at the sight of him eating a mouthful of concrete. She'd seen this about maybe ten times in the past couple of weeks, but it never got any easier to see. It felt like it hurt her just to observe it in motion. About a second later, and the sound of Izuku falling back onto the floor, Mina looked back towards him, seeing his legs up to wall, but the rest of his body down and away from the very same wall. How he hadn't broken a bone was amazing. "You doin' alright down there, Midori?"

"….Ouch." He groaned, clutching at his forehead, where apparently most of the impact had been located around. Aside from a nasty and pretty clear graze, he was fine, if not dazed. He took a few seconds to remember who he was, where he was, and what words meant. "That didn't go as I wanted…" Able to coherently think though, he did grant himself a small amount of praise. "Still… I think I'm getting the hang of this…"

"You count smashing your face against the wall as progress, huh?" He found silver linings in bad situations, Mina wouldn't begrudge him that. Still, with someone smashing against the walls as frequently as he was, she wouldn't have been surprised if he had just been a red paste by the end of the session. "I've gotta be honest, I'm still amazed your bones haven't broken again since last week." Mina mentioned, walking up towards him with the intention of helping him onto his feet.

A series of scars ran down Izuku's hands, which he glanced at as Mina said what she did. The first week of serious training to refine the use of One For All had been exceptionally painful, with his just totally unable to figure out how to master this ability. A lack of ability to regulate his power had caused him injury, and multiple visits to the school nurse. The absolute power that One For All generated was way too much for the young, previously Quirkless boy's body.

He had only Toshinori's work-out plan for the fact that his body had started to adapt far quicker to the Quirk. According to his mentor in all things Quirks, the more toned, refined, and overall strong the natural body was, the easier it could contain the power that the Quirk generated. As the previous holder to that ability, Toshinori's words carried weight, and with that weight, had come an exercise regime designed to make Izuku's body a suitable vessel for One For All. For two years, he had followed that plan, developing pretty much every muscle that he had in his body.

Finally, the benefits to that hard work were showing off. He had quickly gained some degree of control over One For All…. But the Quirk still was a long way away from being mastered. He still struggled with a lot of things regarding the power, and there was a lot more work left to be done.

If he wanted to be a Hero, he needed to learn how to control this power, and he needed to learn how to control it as soon as possible. Perhaps there was some sort of shortcut, some trick that he could use in order to develop the ability and make it into his own power. His own Quirk.

Then he could start this entire Hero crusade he had planned.

Well…. He could start part of what he hoped.

Standing next to him, and looking down at the contemplating self-imposed Hero-in-Training, Mina let out a small sigh and read Izuku's mind, and offered him her hand to help him up. "I'm guessing Bakugou's still not on board with the idea, is he?"

"…No." Izuku admitted, taking her hand.

Upon hearing about the idea to become Heroes, to use their Quirks to protect people who didn't have powers of their own, and to fight people who used their Quirks to cause problems, to become selfish, and to look after only themselves and their own benefits, as well as the ones who existed solely to act against the Quirkless, to try to prove themselves superior, to try and cause more needless violence, Mina, for one, was absolutely thrilled. She had jumped on the idea immediately, enthusiastically showing any and all support within her entire being.

Though she had a distrust towards a lot of the Quirkless people in this world, Izuku was one of the purely genuine ones who honestly did care for the status that the Quirked were in, and she could see that very clearly. And for that, and how he had saved her like he had, she trusted him, unconditionally, and without hesitation. He believed that becoming Heroes could help change that, and she would stand with him on that front. She fully embraced the idea of Heroism immediately.

Katsuki on the other hand… He wasn't so keen on the whole idea.

And his reasons for doing so were totally understandable.

He had made several valid points regarding the idea of Heroism in the modern society. The first one being that people viewed the Quirked as freaks, loose cannons, and demons with some kind of ulterior motive. Regardless of how much good they did, some pitiful scumbag would find a way to twist their actions around into something evil, further daggering the hole that was the Quirked populations place in this society. In short, the Quirkless didn't trust the Quirked, and would treat Heroes like they were criminals. It was probably why no one else had even attempted to do it in the last few years.

Secondly, he pointed out how little Izuku could control the One For All Quirk. Altruistic tendencies aside, he wasn't going to be able to be of much use to a single person if he couldn't use his Quirk at all. This one had been a very real fact that hit Izuku hard, hence the training that he was doing here with Mina now. The goal was to become proficient enough to be able to at least control the Quirk to a degree. To just some level where Izuku knew he could make the most out of his newly-bestowed powers without damaging himself and the people he wanted to protect in the process.

And thirdly, he opposed the mere idea that they owed the Quirkless ruled government a single shard of their help. After everything that they'd been through, after everything that they'd taken from Katsuki, he didn't even want to offer them help. That one had been ruled less in favour of logic, and more in favour of anger over personal persecution. It wasn't like Izuku didn't understand.

It wasn't like he didn't understand why Katsuki might oppose the idea. He had every right to…

"He'll come around." Mina assured the young boy, pulling him onto his feet with both her arms dragging him away from the floor and onto his feet. Izuku had learned rapidly, she was a lot stronger than she naturally appeared to be. "I think he just needs some time to get the idea into his head. Maybe he'll figure out that we'll be able to save a lot of Quirked people too. That might help him warm up to it."

In truth, Izuku was content to let Katsuki make his own choice regarding this. The simple fact of the matter was, if Katsuki had no desire to try his hand at this Hero idea Izuku had, then he wasn't going to try to force him, or make him change his mind. Katsuki had every right to be angry at the Quirkless for what they'd done to him. The laws against those who had Quirks the tests that they included that outed Katsuki as a Quirked individual, and the subsequent total collapse of his life as a result… He wouldn't want to help their society. He wouldn't want to repay those who had treated him like an animal by becoming some sort of Hero as Izuku suggested,

Much as the Explosion Quirk user trusteed Izuku – And he trusted the black haired boy with his very life – Katsuki just couldn't do it. He just couldn't bring himself to support the plan. People feared him for something he couldn't control. Treated him like dirt for something he couldn't control. And if they saw people acting like Heroes, like Izuku wanted them to… they wouldn't praise them. Admire them. Support them…

They'd target them, try to take them down like they would anyone else who had a Quirk.

And that was the final reason Katsuki refused to support their plan – Because as far as he was concerned, all they were doing was putting themselves in danger, and the people they were trying to protect would just try to shoot them down.

Katsuki refused to have anything to do with them building themselves up for their own downfall. He wouldn't help them prepare to throw their lives away in any form.

He wasn't trying to stop them though. Izuku was thankful he at least respected him enough not to try and stand in his way. In the face of that… He couldn't just try and force Katsuki to do something he didn't want to do. It was enough that he was just happy to remain on the side-lines, neither contributing, nor hindering them in any way.

"Come on." Mina said, interrupting his thinking by patting him on the back and making her way to the exit. "We've already spent a ton of time here. Any more and you're not even gonna have a face left to flatten."

Usually, when they trained, they practiced for about three or four hours, before Izuku wound up being too injured to keep going. Today had ended in just an hour and a half. As Izuku gained more and more control over his Quirk, he found himself getting more and more injured. Leaping from place to place had been a stepping stone, but now it seemed to be doing more damage to him than any good. He still couldn't maintain the power in his Quirk for more than a few seconds before it was lost.

There had to be a way to control this power. He knew there was. He just needed to find it.

And once he found it, One For All would be his, and he could see how this plan of his would play out.

The pair of them packed up what they had brought with them, which wasn't a whole lot at all, mostly just bags and their school jackets, and headed for the exit to the room. By now, it was about five PM, meaning that everyone was wondering around the large campus, either going to visit friends, hand out, or going from place to place to hand in homework, do chores for the teaching staff, or various other activities. Some of the pupils will have gone straight back to their dorms, and the brave ones will have gone into town. Due to them having to wear their uniforms in the town, not a lot of students felt comfortable doing this. Most of the ones that went were the ones that had very minor, or no unique features to their person. The one that went that did have these unique features were often headstrong, determined, looking for a fight, or just plain stupid.

Mina hadn't left the school grounds yet. Izuku had, once, to grab a bag filled to the brim with fabrics, plastics and the likes. For the costumes.

Because of course, Heroes needed to have costumes.

Opening the door, the two of them were exposed to the sun's rays, blinding them temporarily, before their eyes adjusted and they regained their optical senses.

Their reward for adapting to this sudden change in their surroundings – Katsuki, stood leaning against the wall to their corridor, his hands stuffed into his pockets and looking towards them as soon as they opened the door.

He didn't say a word for a few moments, just looking at the two of them with his red eyes, and when they saw him, they returned the look. Katsuki expression relayed a lot of emotions that he had to be feeling right now, the most prominent one of which seemed to be some kind of mixture between disdain and resignation.

"Kacchan?" Izuku broke the silence between all of them first, without really thinking about it.

"You're seriously going through with this?" Katsuki muttered, sounding like it was actively paining him to come to terms with Izuku's plans. He had seen the scars along his best friend's arms, watching as each day, he became more and more torn up as he tried to figure out the Quirk bestowed onto him. Were it not for this insane idea he'd had, the Quirk would just naturally adapt to his body.

Instead, Izuku was pushing it, tearing himself apart in order to speed up the process. His situation was unique, certainly, as was his line of thinking. Both were moronic, and what Katsuki considered to be borderline suicidal. He was growing more and more convinced that his friend was just flat out insane. Every move Izuku made seemed to be him just throwing himself deeper and deeper into the dangers of society. Of being Quirked.

Something Izuku didn't quite get. Sure, he sympathised, but he'd never really experienced being Quirked himself. Not yet. And Katsuki had to wonder…

"…You gonna keep up this Hero thing when the Quirkless start throwing rocks at you, Deku?" He asked, making direct eye contact with Izuku.

The question did make Izuku freeze for a second, but he quickly brushed it off. "Yeah. I am."

"Suppose you would. You were born Quirkless." Katsuki sighed. To be frank, he wasn't sure what he had been expecting. Izuku might have a Quirk now, but he was originally born Quirkless. No matter what way someone looked at it, he wouldn't ever start to hate the Quirkless, even if they started hating him. His attention then turned towards Mina, who he seemed particularly angered with. "You, I can't fuckin' figure out at all. Your family threw you out and you've been homeless for years, and now you're opting to help this dumbass protect the fucking Quirkless?"

"And to help other Quirked people." Mina added on, determined to make sure that Katsuki realized that was an option.

"And how the hell're you gonna do that? You going to use your Quirks to beat up people who don't have any powers that are harassing the ones that do? Yeah, that'll go well." The ash blond boy mocked, throwing his hands to either side of him. "'Our Heroes, the ones who beat up the Quirkless pricks that run our society'"

Protecting Quirked people…. It wasn't going to be an easy task, Mina and Izuku both knew. Nearly impossible to do without starting to look like rouge criminals. But it was something that both of them knew if they wanted to be Heroes, they were going to have to figure out. There wasn't any room for doubt or a lack of conviction.

They'd figure it out as they went along.

"Now that I think about it – How the fuck're you gonna keep up with him, pinky?"

"Eh?"

"You've got an Acid Quirk – Last time I checked, that doesn't give you much super speed. Deku's rocking Strength Enhancement, so he's gonna be leaping place to place. What's the plan, you gonna carry her, Deku?"

"….You've thought about this a lot, Kacchan."

Silence fell.

The fact of the matter was, right now, Katsuki had put in a whole lot of thought into the flaws of what they were doing. He hadn't provided any solutions, that much was true, but he certainly had a thing for finding the flaws in their plans at face value. For thinking of the valid obstacles that they were destined to encounter. For pointing out the logistical flaws. For thinking two steps ahead of both Izuku and Mina.

And there were only really two places that this could come from – The first one being that Katsuki was just a killjoy. And Izuku knew for a fact it wasn't because of this.

For as long as he'd known him to be Quirked, and for as long as Izuku had been the altruistic saviour of Quirked people, Katsuki had always been the one to point out when he was acting recklessly, the flaws in his ideas, the pragmatist to his optimism, the muscle to his weaknesses. The Quirk to his Quirklessness. The fact of the matter was, Katsuki opposed Izuku in every possible way, making him a living dichotomy of his childhood friend.

Yet because they still somehow got along, in no small part to the loyalty the Explosion Quirk user had to the person who had stood by him in the face of mockery and prejudice, Katsuki was able to apathetically point out when Izuku was taking his ideals too far. When he wasn't thinking clearly about the flaws in his plans. Often, these notations came with suggestions from Katsuki on how to overcome them, where possible.

But not now. And the reason for it…

"…You're worried about us." Mina flatly stated. She knew deep down, Katsuki was a huge softy, underneath all the rough, gruff, swearing muscles and explosions. "You're trying to hide it right now, but you really are worried, aren't you?"

With a light growl, Katsuki begin to glow red in the face, either from the embarrassment that he'd been found out, or rage at the same fact. He had come here to try to dissuade the pair of them, but instead had not only given himself up, but inadvertently aided them in their insane plan.

Literally the exact opposite of what his goal had been. So, in typical Katsuki fashion, he retorted with loud yelling and swearing.

"I don't give a flying fuck what you two idiots do!"

"Yeah you do!" Mina teased, feeling every tense muscle in her body relax almost immediately, like a weight had just been released from each of her joints, making her able to smile again.

"Do you want a go, you acidic bitch?! I'll fucking kill you!"

"U-Uh, Kacchan?"

"I'll fucking take you on too, Deku!"

"N-No, Kacchan!" As he spoke, Izuku sharply pointed a finger behind the raging Explosion Quirk user.

Stood about seven meters away, stood two other Class 1-A dorm room students. Two of the worst possible ones, for that matter – Kirishima and Mineta. The Hardening Quirk user and the, frankly put, disturbingly perverted short individual had just been observing the exchange between them. And there wasn't any way for them to know how much they'd heard.

Did they know about their plans to act as Heroes?

Or did they just show up when Katsuki started yelling?

"Wouldn't be a huge challenge for you to beat on Midoriya, would it Bakugou?" Kirishima questioned, with something on his face that couldn't yet decide if it was a smug grin or a frown at the mere sight of Izuku and his club of Quirked apologists. "He hadn't got much power in him to fight back."

Still ignorant to the truth behind Izuku having a Quirk, Kirishima still believed Izuku to be totally Quirkless. Izuku had said nothing regarding his scars, blaming it on a clumsier personality trait whenever he was asked by someone, now hiding the nature of his Quirk. About a day after the first, Toshinori had called for Izuku, explaining to him Kirishima's inquiry regarding the nature of his Quirked status. He further explained that Kirishima felt that both he and the school were protecting Izuku for some reason, his conspired list including, but not limited to, espionage and treachery.

He also mentioned Kirishima's bold, face to face declaration that he was going to discover the truth behind Izuku's Quirked status. And true to his word, Kirishima had been trying everything, short of actually being friendly to the black haired Quirkless boy, asking outright, or just beating Izuku into a bloody pulp.

When Izuku learned of this, he wouldn't lie and say that it didn't worry him. Frankly, the idea of Kirishima snooping around was creepy, and the fact that he had his Hero idea around the same time had prompted him to be extra careful about openly discussing it, or doing anything even slightly related to it. When he worked on the costume in his spare time, he locked the door, threw some cloths at the base, so nothing could be slid under, and closed the windows and drew the curtains, just in case.

If Kirishima discovered the plans to act as Heroes… Who knew what he might try to pull. He might just outright beat both him and Mina into the ground for trying to endanger more Quirked people like that. Best case scenario was him just ratting them out to Aizawa.

The thing was though, Kirishima would almost certainly drop all of this madness if Izuku would just prove he had a Quirk. He'd have to face the fact that he was wrong, and would most likely leave them alone… but that wouldn't have the effect Izuku wanted. So he requested that everyone remain quiet about his Quirk. His reasoning behind it was simple.

He had a plan for it.

So for now, he had asked those within his circle to not try and defend his Quirked status. A request that thoroughly pissed off Katsuki to no end.

No one said anything in response to Kirishima's taunt, though Katsuki's fingers noticeably twitched, and his mouth had formed into a very aggressive scowl. He still kept his mouth as closed as he could allow, though it was clear he already wanted to scream obscenities towards the red haired Hardening scumbag.

"What do you want, Kirishima?" Mina questioned, quickly stepping forward and slightly in front of Izuku. She seemed to do this whenever danger within the school grounds seemed to strike up towards his, stepping in the way to protect him from any harm that would come to him. It was a reflexive action that she took now, becoming rather protective over Izuku after their introduction to one another.

"Damn Quirkless bastard…" Mineta muttered, straight up staring at Mina. Frankly, she didn't even want to acknowledge whatever disturbing things he had in his head.

Sliding his hands into his trouser pockets, Kirishima just looked between her, and then towards Katsuki. "Mineta and I were just hanging out, and we heard Explosion boy there yelling and screaming. We just wanted to know what was happening." His eyes then diverted towards Izuku, where his grin fell. "I was hoping he'd gotten tired of your bullshit, Quirkless."

It still did mess with Izuku, the feeling of being spoken down to so like that. He'd always seen Quirked people being talked down to like that…. But he still was getting used to being talk to like that. Even though he knew that he was going to have to get used to it quickly, since he was both Quirked and Quirkless now – He was born without a Quirk, and now had one. So both sides would hate him.

Those facts… Those actions, they made him feel like dirt.

Katsuki still didn't say anything, his hands still twitching, and tiny explosions still going off within his palms. While Katsuki wasn't going to say anything, due to Izuku's request. Not that he had to like it. His teeth were gritted, and he felt nothing but a serious compulsive urge to throw Kirishima over the nearest wall – Or preferably through it.

"Suppose not." Kirishima shrugged at the explosions, unintimidated due to the knowledge that he could use his own Quirk to shield himself from harm should Katsuki cross the line again, and try to attack him. Once again, his attention turned back to Izuku, where his tone took a deeper, darker, ominous, threatening turn. "I still don't get how or why they even let you into this place without a Quirk, 'Deku,' or why the headmaster and teachers all claim you have this bullshit power, when you sure as hell don't. But I'm going to find out. And I'll be very happy to throw you right out of this place myself."

It marked the first time Kirishima had made the threat towards Izuku's face.

He wasn't going to let this go.

He really was determined to figure out whatever truth he could from Izuku's Quirk, and broadcast it for everyone to see.

He seemed to hate Izuku that much.

Despite never having done a thing to him directly, Kirishima still detested the other teenager with such a passion, it could be repeated a thousand times and it would never be able to express the levels of hatred Kirishima felt for him. The fact Mineta was stood by him as he did all of this made the Pop-Off Quirk user's position clear as crystal – He agreed with Kirishima entirely, and was just waiting for an excuse to have Izuku beaten within an inch of his life.

Before another word could be exchanged however, the sudden clattering of something metallic just to the side of them had caught their attention. A small, silver canister, like one that was used for spray paint, rolled towards them slowly. Though no one was there to have dropped the canister but the five students confronting one another.

"What the hell?" Mineta was the first one who spoke, actually breaking off from the group to get a closer look at it. Totally clear, with just a metallic shine to it, it just stayed there for a moment, not doing anything. Kicking it lightly seemed to have no effect. "Did someone just throw this over the wall?"

Instantly as he said this, the canister seemed to explode outwards, releasing a thick, white smoke in doing so rapidly engulfing the short student in the fog. The sound of the canister exploding was so loud and deafening, that all the four remaining students could do in response was clamp their hands over their ears to try to soften the painful strike to their ears.

"Mineta!" Kirishima yelled out with concern, though he had no prayer of being heard above the current running in everyone's ears.

Around them, at the same time, a series of these same explosions began to go off, one after the other, all along the inside of the walls, each one emitting a similar white mist from the container. At least six went off in Izuku's line of sight, and as they did so, aside from the ones that ran away, multiple students began to scream, cough, and seemed to be suffering from high levels of irritation and increased activity around their eyes.

Izuku and Katsuki had seen this multiple times. They knew exactly what it was just by watching it for a few short seconds.

"It's tear gas!" Izuku loudly yelled. Worse, it was some kind of homemade concoction - The police weren't going to use it on the legally protected Yuuei. That meant that this particular type of tear gas could be even more dangerous than the ones used to quell domestic riots and protests!

"Oh shit, Mineta!" Without any hesitation whatsoever, Kirishima activated his hardening Quirk all over his face, took his uniforms grey jacket off, covering his mouth and nose with the fabric, and dashing into the smoke cloud to try to find out where the small student had wound up in all of that dangerous gas. There wasn't any sort of guarantee that it would be safe. This was a homemade type of a dangerous, irritant gas, so there was no telling what sort of effect that it would have on his eyes. Not that it had caused the red haired anti-Quirkless teenager to hesitate for even a split second.

Without thinking, Izuku mad emotions to run in after the Hardening Quirk user. "Kirishima!"

"Fuck that!" Katsuki quickly grabbed hold of Izuku before he could run off, and was quickly helped by Mina, who grabbed hold of his arm to pull him back. "That fuckers on his own!"

"Kacchan, we can't just – "

"You wanna play at being a fuckin' Hero, right?!" His best friend yelled at him, totally not caring if anyone was around to hear his screaming. "Then we need to stop whoever the fucks out there tossing that shit in here!"

"He's right, Midori!" Mina yelled, just as loud, tugging back on his arm with as much strength as she could muster. "This stuff could be dangerous!"

As soon as the pair of them had finished speaking, a loud, obnoxiously so, horrifically ear-splitting revving noise, multiplied about six times, played from the other side of the walls like a series of grenades. Loud cheering and yelling and swearing at the students all blended together into some sort of incomprehensible roar, even as it grew ever so slightly quieter as the apparent squad began to circle the area – Judging by their noise, towards the main entrance to the school grounds!

This had to be some sort of hate fuelled attack. There wasn't any question in Izuku's head. A lot of Quirkless people hadn't liked the idea of Yuuei in the first place, thinking that it would just be a grounds for all the freaks to breed and cause them more and more trouble. Protesters were outside the school virtually every single day. But the idea that some of them were prepared to commit an act of domestic terrorism…

It shouldn't have surprised Izuku at this point, but it sort of did. A part of him had really wanted to just pray for better…

He couldn't dwell on that though! The school was being attacked!

And as much as he wanted to help Kirishima… "…Okay! Okay, we'll go stop the ones attacking!"

Without another word, Katsuki blasted the ground underneath him with a series of intense explosions, propelling himself up and over the walls. His intention was to attack first, and see if he could cause the attackers, wherever they were, to back down, or just totally demolish them with his Quirk.

Instant action, without even hesitating…

Like a Hero.

"Come on, Midori!"

Mina's yelling brought Izuku back to the face of the matter. Turning around from the cloud Kirishima and Mineta were engulfed in, the pair of them darted across the fields as fast as their legs could possibly carry them.

They had to rush past various students, many of who had been engulfed in the gasses were crying their eyes out, salivating or snivelling as the effects took effect. Tear gas, in spite of its name, Izuku had learned, was in fact an aerosol, that contained an agent known as Chlorobenzaldene Malononitrile, and it worked by irritating the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, mouth, and lungs. The closer a person was to it when it went off, the worse burns they could receive, and the longer they remained in the gas, the worse the effects could be.

Like several of the students who were crawling out of the gas, throwing up their stomachs as their bodies protested the aerosol in their systems.

Shouting, screaming and crying were the most numerous noises, and the students that hadn't been there for the initial attack were now rushing like crazy to try to figure out what was going on, and if there was any way to help. Some of the braver students covered their mouths and noses and ventured into the gases, pulling out the ones affected by the blasts and the constraints of the containers. Some of the even braver ones actually grabbed hold of the canisters once they found them, and tried to throw them back over the wall, in an effect to stop the situation from getting any worse.

Some of the more badly injured had burns on their legs, arms, or even faces, with injuries so bad along the limbs of the various students they made Todoroki's burn across his left eye look like a papercut in comparison.

These were students. Teenagers. Children.

And people had intentionally and deliberately attacked them just because they were unlucky enough to be born with Quirks. It couldn't make Izuku feel more ill.

Rushing past the dorm room to 1-A, several students had just exited the dorm building, looking around at the chaos and the confusion with a mixture of terror and utter bewilderment. None of them were sure of what was happening. Among those students were Uraraka, Yaoyarozu, and Jiro, all utterly confused by what was happening. The screams, shrieks, and people running everywhere doing nothing to explain to them their current situation.

"Ashido, hold on a second!" Izuku yelled, as loud as possible – But to no avail.

With her ears still ringing like her eardrums had just been totally blasted, her overall hearing had suffered for it. As a direct result, she didn't hear him calling her name.

"Ashido!"

Once again, she didn't hear him, and suddenly, she was out of the gate. Izuku's very first instinct was to dash towards her – Use his quirk, the results be damned – But he stopped himself, painful as it was. The fact of the matter was, because his ability to regulate and control One For All, he was defenceless.

And there was a person who had the ability to literally create items that could be used as weapons barely five meters away.

"Deku, what's going on?!" Uraraka yelled upon seeing the boy with dark green highlights in his hair, trying to gather what little information about the situation that she possibly could.

Though it proved to be a futile endeavour. "Can't explain!" Izuku responded, skidding to a stop right in front of the steps to the main door, and looking straight to Yaoyarozu the second after he finished. "Yaoyarozu, your Quirk is Creation, right?!"

An utterly bewildered blink latter, the tall girl confirmed this with a nod.

"I need you to create a baseball bat, or something for me!"

The first one to respond was Jiro, stepping right in front of the taller girl and yelling at Izuku with never before heard ferocity to her voice, and her Earphone Jack Quirk pointed directly at him, like she was going to stab them inside his flesh. "What the hell's going on, you Quirkless prick?! Why the hell do we – "

With an equal level of ferociousness that Izuku kept reserved only for the most heated of moments, he slapped Jiro's Earphone Quirk away with his left hand. "We don't have the time! Kacchan and Ashido are already running into trouble, Kirishima and Mineta could have serious injuries, and everyone else is in danger – Just do what I'm asking, Yaoyarozu, and make me some sort of weapon!"

There was a few seconds of the three of them just staring at Izuku in absolute aghast at his incredible display of aggression and assertiveness that was uncharacteristic of the residentially considered timid, awkward, and shy member of the dorm. The situation, whatever it was, had left Izuku in such a bizarre, uncharacteristic state, that it left Jiro so surprised, her earphones literally dropping as she took a step back out of pure intimidation.

Yaoyarozu, despite her dislike and distrust of Izuku, was simply shocked into doing exactly as he requested. Fumbling and pulling up her sleeves, a long, thick pole, made from the fat in her system, but composed of metallic elements such as steel and carbon, in the form of a baseball bat, as Izuku had requested.

"Thanks!" Izuku expressed his genuine gratitude, tearing the bat from her arm and running faster than he ever though he possibly could towards the gate where Mina had been headed. As he did so though, he turned on his heel, backpedalling, while facing Uraraka. "There's a bunch of people who need help down near the walls, Uraraka! Go help them!"

* * *

"Bakugou, look out!"

Mina ran towards her foul-mouthed friend with as much speed as she could muster, tackling him to the ground, mere seconds before one of the bikers came up behind him with the total intention to run him down on their Harley-Davidson's motorcycle. The attacker missed with both their bike, and the wooden baseball bat that they had been swinging around in Mina's general direction as soon as they saw her running to save her friend.

There were actually five members of the motorcycle group, each of them armed with a number of canisters containing their homemade tear gas, in what amounted to flak-jacket like vests with multiple pockets and holsters. Every one of them also had some sort of weapon in hand too, some with baseball bats, steel poles, and one who just straight up was wielding a machete in his left hand.

These were dangerous people, and they wanted blood. They must have expected that some people would try to come out and fight them off. Hence their weapons.

"Freaks!" One of them yelled through a red full-head biker's helmet.

"Fuckers." Katsuki growled, picking himself up. His left hand unleashed a series of explosions, designed to intimidate his Quirkless opponents. Over the sound of his detonations, he yelled, "Pink girl, how many of these pricks d'you think you can take?!"

Before she could give any sort of answer, the revving of several motorcycles began up again, as several members of the began to change the gears on their bikes to gain speed from a stopped start, and drive their way towards the two of them, weapons drawn, dragged along the ground, sending a sickening clanging noise ringing out every second it was pulled along. One of them made their way directly towards Katsuki, the other towards Mina.

The one that had aimed for Mina was clinging tightly onto a steel pipe, which they now raised over their head as they approached Mina at faster and faster speeds. "Go to hell!"

Mina was completely used to have to use her Quirk in self-defence. The state of the world basically demanded that she learn how to use her Acid as a weapon against people who meant her harm. Generating her acid within her palms until it was spilling out of her hands, she took aim, and, with superb accuracy, tossed her ball of corrosive liquid towards the incoming bike – Taking out the front wheel, dissolving it into nothingness, causing it to skid along the ground as it skimmed to a halt. Momentum threw the Quirkless out of their seat and straight onto the road.

Said biker attempted to recover before Mina could retaliate against them, reaching for their weapon that had been knocked a few meters away from them. Desperately, they tried to grab hold of their weapon – But before they could reach, Mina reached towards the biker's helmet, dragging it off of their head, to reveal a young man with a goatee. Mina did this to make her target more vulnerable.

Instead, all it seemed to do was anger him.

"Quirked bitch!" As soon as his face was revealed, the man started to swing his fists towards Mina, trying to punch, slap, and scratch her, to get her in whatever way possible. Her arms were too short however, and Mina quickly pushed him into an arm lock, and slid off her tie to use as a binding rope to keep his hands kept together.

As she tried to bind this man together however, the same cyclist that had charged for Katsuki just a few seconds ago had circled back around, and was now revving towards Mina like a bloodthirsty animal that had just been unleashed. They were making a beeline right for the pink girl.

"Die!"

Before they could get too close though, Katsuki came blasting back into sight, using his Quirk as propellers to allow him to rocket through the air at an increased speed, letting him keep up with the biker. As soon as he was alongside the Quirkless motor enthusiast and domestic terrorist, he red eyed boy showed absolutely no hesitation, nor any mercy whatsoever, about throwing his palms wide open and detonating a huge explosion right in the bikers face.

They were protected by a similar full-head biker helmet, but the impact and force of Katsuki's Explosion carried the most weight. Sending a shock of powerful kinetic energy into his targets face, Katsuki succeeded in knocking the biker clean off of his motorcycle, letting the bike swerve and skid to a halt as the rider fell and smashed straight into the ground.

"Kacchan!"

As Katsuki's battle instincts took over, Izuku's call caught his attention, pulling his focus away from his fight and towards where his friend was supposedly located.

In his palms was a baseball bat, metal in nature – Where he'd managed to get it from, the Explosion Quirk user had no real clue, but have it he did. Weapon in hand, he was clearly ready to fight. Even when he didn't have total control over his Quirk, he was still seriously going to fight?

That was admirable – In a suicidal sort of way.

Katsuki's eyes grew wider suddenly, and at the top of his voice, he yelled a clear as crystal warning. "Deku, on your right!"

As per the call made, to Izuku's right, the third motorcyclist was charging towards Izuku, homing in on a significantly weaker target. At such a speed that they were going too, there wasn't going to be any way that Katsuki was able to be able to get over there and protect Izuku from the incoming attacker.

The best that Katsuki could do was give Izuku a place to target – A place that would absorb the majority of the impact and give Izuku the best chance at striking out.

"Go for the chest, Deku!"

Izuku followed the advice, gripping as hard onto the metal bat as his fingers would allow. Spinning on his heels towards his target, he kept his lead low, his back bent, and put as much force into the strike as he could possibly emit from his body, transferring a virtual ton of energy into his opponent, knocking them completely clear out of the match.

For a second, Izuku just looked at the target he'd taken down, in a mixture of both shock and a weird sense of pride that he'd managed to take down a dangerous person like this.

Was this what being a Hero was going to be like?

Contemplation had to wait – Out of the corner of Izuku's eye, he noticed movement behind his childhood friend. "Kacchan!"

"Fucking Quirked!"

Katsuki's incredible reflexes suddenly activated. "Die!" As Katsuki's previously knocked down opponent tried to climb onto their feet to trash talk and swing at the angry young teenager, Katsuki displayed even less mercy than his total mercilessness, and with a motion that looked like he was backhand slapping his target, unleashed an even more deadly and dangerous explosion from his palms, this time at total point blank range

The blast far larger, the impact more severe, hiding none of his contempt for the general Quirkless population, nor was he displaying any sort of violent mercy. Katsuki held nothing back in his action. Blasting away his enemy with the same force as a grenade explosion would have, Katsuki knocked his enemy straight to the ground, this time thoroughly Ko'ed. The helmet protected them from any real fatal danger that the explosion might have caused.

A natural battle instinct made Katsuki a dangerous force to be reckoned with when he was actually able to use his Quirk freely. Even without any sort of formal training, he was a warrior in how own right. He had a natural battle sense that made him terrifying if he was ever riled up by anyone to the point of violence.

And he'd had plenty of chances to use his Quirk against bigots. His exploits with Izuku had given him plenty of practice to hone his natural talent.

As this went about happening though, Izuku made his way over to Mina, while the other bikers seemed to hold up on attacking them, presumably for fear of getting struck down like their associates. Running over to his friend, who was struggling to keep the biker she had taken down on the floor, Izuku went to see if he could do anything to help her in her endeavours.

"Where the hell did you go?" She asked as soon as he was within earshot. The biker underneath her squirmed again, swearing at her and insulting her pink skin, but she didn't pay any attention to it.

"I needed a weapon! I tried to call for you, but you didn't hear me!" Izuku defended himself by holding up his acquired weapon, and tugging off his own tie to add to the knot Mina had made. "But… It doesn't looks like you needed my help that much."

As if on que, another biker, apparently deciding that he'd had enough of waiting, had begun to loudly drive his way directly towards the pair of them while they were distracted momentarily. This person in particular, however, wasn't even taking their allies into consideration, blasting his bike out at the top speed it could without even hesitating, and charging right towards the Quirked students without even a thought for considering his allies.

"Oh, shit!" Mina was the first to reach, standing upright and trying to pull Izuku from the incoming charge, while the black haired boy, in an act of altruism that would have shocked no one who had even the first clue about the sort of person he was, tried to drag the biker that they had just taken out to safety with him.

They had less than a second before they wound up getting run down –

"Get down!"

The impact came just a second later – But it wasn't Izuku or Mina that felt the brunt of the collision.

Looking up, the last person Mina expected to be there had darted across from the school grounds towards them and protected the pair of them. The very last person Mina would have ever expected, in a million years, to go out of his way to help them.

Kirishima had activated his Hardening Quirk as soon as he'd gotten between the pair of them, with barely even a few seconds to spare. His rock-textured skin was now acting as a wall between this person and their targets, the wheel on the back of the motorcycle still going, but not pushing Kirishima anywhere, his feet dug into the ground like his very life depended on him keeping this bike exactly where it was.

Izuku blinked as he realized who it was defending him and Mina, his eyes getting wider and wider. "K-Kirishima!?"

"You gonna sit there, or are you gonna move?!" The Hardening Quirk user yelled at the pair of them, the strain that this impact was taking on him making itself abundantly clear in the tone of his voice. "Get out of the way!"

The two students did as they were instructed, moving out of the way as soon as they were yelled to do so – And then Kirishima reached over and grabbed the Quirkless biker, and slammed them into the ground with ruthless force, hand on the head, and smashed right into the concrete, enough to crack the helmet wide open..

Even with their helmet absorbing most of the impact, they were still knocked totally unconscious.

Turning his attention right to the final biker, who was still hanging back after watching his fiends get made to eat concrete and realizing that he was well in and over his head. It almost looked like they were about to flee, to act the victim and try and salvage this whole mess of an operation in some messed up form.

Not that Kirishima was about to let them just do that. Hardening his hands, and then slamming them together, Kirishima made his hands create sparks upon coming into contact with one another – Like he was dragging two swords against one another. "You just gonna stay over there?! Come and get me, you Quirkless psycho! Or are you afraid of a freak like me?!"

Something in Kirishima's taunt got to the biker in that moment. Perhaps the sight of his Quirk activating reminding him why he was even there. Maybe it was the fact that he noticed all his allies so easily beaten down. Or maybe he just had too much pride to let an insult like that go without swinging a few attacks back at the one responsible, no matter who it was and what sort of Quirk they had.

They were a Quirked kid.

And they were mocking them.

A freak.

Mocking them.

Whatever the reason was, the biker got a second wind of hate-filled adrenaline, firmly clutched hole of the wooden baseball bat that they were holding onto – Not that it would do him any good, but the intimidation factor would at least be there – And revved on their bike's engine.

Horsepower began to kick into effect as the bike began to pick up speed, charging straight towards Kirishima at a staggering 60 Miles-per-hour speed in such a short amount of time. The impact would have killed anyone else as soon as it hit them.

But Kirishima's Hardening Quirk made sure that wasn't even close to the case.

Because his Hardening Quirk gave him such a durable body, and he had positioned himself so firmly, he acted as a wall.

A wall which the bike collided right into, and sent the biker flying straight over Kirishima's head, and slamming into the wall. Still conscious, however, the biker groaned, and tried to flip themselves over – Kirishima didn't give them the chance.

Within a second of the biker being on the ground, Kirishima had run up, grabbed the collar of the biker, and lifted them up.

And then, with a Hardened first, slammed a solid right-hook into the bikers head, knocking them straight out cold.

* * *

The end result of that day had brought about the new law regarding even stricter Quirk control. Now quirks were made illegal to use in self-defence. Why? The logic wasn't solid at all. Thirty children injured in a hate-provoked action against Quirked individuals, and the government responded by taking away the ability to use Quirks as a method of self-defence?

Then again, the government was just as biased against Quirks as anyone else was, and anyone who said otherwise was a liar, or an idiot for believing the lies.

Mineta, and a few others, suffered from nasty burns on their limbs. In Mineta's case, his right leg now had a nasty burn that stopped just short of his knee. A few had marks along their arms, and one unfortunate person wound up with a nasty scar on their cheek. Uraraka, Yaoyarozu and Jiro had rushed to help the injured. Thanks to that, a few people were spared nasty injury.

Although Mineta ended up spending the night in the ER.

Still… Katsuki still didn't know what Kirishima wanted, the day after everything had gone down.

"What do you want?" He flatly asked. Regardless of what his actions were the previous day, Katsuki still had no real trust towards Kirishima. The fact of the matter was, Kirishima hated the Quirkless. And nothing was going to change that about him, Katsuki was certain.

He protected Izuku, sure, but he was pretty sure he only did so because Mina was there as well, and say what one liked about Kirishima, he would protect anyone who had a Quirk, if he got along with them or not. He was at least able to say that one positive thing about the Hardening Quirk user – He stood by what he said. He didn't discriminate when it came to protecting other people with Quirks.

Not that it made him a good person because of it.

"Hey, I just wanted to make sure we're alright now." Kirishima then said, holding his hand out for Katsuki to shake. "We took on those bastards yesterday, yeah? Figured you can't be that bad a guy if you're that willing to fight."

Katsuki just looked at Kirishima flatly. He didn't convey any emotion, positive or negative

"Well, at the very least, we don't have a problem, do we?"

"…We're gonna have a problem as long as you have a problem with Deku."

"Midoriya helped you fight off those guys while I was helping Mineta, right? Sure, I'll lay off him – He can't be all bad in that case."

"…Sure." Katsuki took hold of Kirishima's hand, firmly shaking it in his own.

This wasn't exactly something he was doing out of his own choice. Were he in any position to throw the red haired boy out a window, he'd be taking them gladly. He'd be all too happy to get rid of Kirishima for good.

But it was once again, on request of Izuku, that if they could form friendships, or at least understandings with other students. It would go a long way to bringing about a kind of peace, and that was the first step towards bringing about understandings, and opening their minds up to accepting the Quirkless.

At least, that was what Izuku claimed.

Still…. He didn't trust Kirishima anymore than he did. He would be civil – But he would never trust this guy.

"Cool." Kirishima gave a friendly grin as he took his hand back. "Hey, me and some others are headed into town if you wanna come with."

"Fuck no. Quirkless are gonna be swarming anyone from Yuuei."

"Alright, fair enough."

With that statement made clear to Kirishima, he left the room, and Katsuki alone. His hands in his pockets, and a grin on his face. Katsuki went straight back to watching the TV, to figure out some more information on the events that were going down in the country today. The developments angered Kirishima just as much as they did the Explosion Quirk user. It was something they could easily agree on.

But that wouldn't cut it.

"How'd it go?"

Looking down as soon as he left the room, Kirishima saw the shortest member of the Yuuei Class 1-A dorm looking up at him expectantly. Though his legs was, right now, covered in bandages and he needed crutches to get around so he didn't damage his burn, Mineta was up and moving in a remarkable amount of time.

"Went pretty well. Bakugou's gonna be at least civil with us now, I think." Kirishima reported, showing his sharp teeth as he did so, bringing his lips ear to ear as his grin widened.

Befriending Katsuki – At least in the most liberal definitions of the word, would give them some kind of freedom of mobility. Keeping the bloodthirsty hound at bay would at least let them move around with less suspicion.

Less suspicion made it easier to figure out why the school was protecting Izuku.

"So then." Kirishima said, pleased with his easy deception of Katsuki. "Now we've dealt with him, I guess next up, we gotta find some proof that Quirkless bastards toying with us."


	11. Getting Prepared

"So… That's the idea." Izuku revealed to his two friends. After explaining his plan out loud to both of them, he wasn't sure what reactions that they would have had.

Mina had been the one to insist that they would need a lot more than just the two of them if they planned on becoming Heroes, and her arguments made a lot of sense. With just One For All, and Acid at hand, they were very limited as to what they could possibly do, and even if they had a wider range of versatility, the fact just remained that just two of them meant that they weren't going to be able to do much. If they wanted to really make an impact on society, to show that Quirks could be used for good, then they were going to need to have more people on their side. More people acting as Heroes. More people who shared their goal.

Hence why Uraraka and Todoroki were now sat in front of both Izuku and Mina, having just been told the entire Hero plan.

Todoroki was a no brainer. Mina had been the one to suggest him basically immediately, for a number of reasons. First of all, they knew that they could trust him, since Todoroki was one of Izuku's friends. He was a person who held no negative feelings towards the Quirkless, specifically because of Izuku's actions himself. And the most practical reason - His Quirk was ridiculously strong. The ability to generate ice and fire both made him incredibly versatile, and incredibly dangerous. If they ever wound up in a bad situation – Of which they would end up in a great many, without even a shadow of a doubt – Todoroki's Quirk would be fantastic for helping defuse it. Either with force, or containment, fire and ice respectively.

On the other hand, Uraraka was a less obvious choice, and one that Izuku made. Like Todoroki, she was one of the only people that he knew in the dorms that had no negative feelings towards the Quirkless. But her Zero Gravity Quirk, sure, it was useful… But compared to everyone else's Quirks, It didn't really have a great many ways to hold up. None of the outright power like One For All. None of the deadly components that Acid had. None of the versatility that Half-Cold-Half-Hot did.

Additionally, it was limited. Unlike Acid and Half-Cold-Half-Hot, it required physical contact in order to work. One For All worked in the same way, but that was a Strength-Enhancement Quirk. It had multiple uses. All Uraraka's Quirk let her do was float things, and that wasn't very useful in the grand scheme of things.

What she did have though, was the right attitude for this sort of thing. One could chock it down to naïveté to a certain degree, since she hadn't experience a huge amount of personal discrimination against her due to her Quirk, but she was optimistic and cheerful. She dreamed of a world where Quirks were accepted as a part of society, just like Izuku and Mina did, almost childishly. She hadn't experienced the gut-punch that was prejudice directly against her, since her family had been so supportive of her when her Quirk activated. She was easily one of the luckiest people in all of Yuuei in that respect.

Those qualities were what made her a good choice to be a Hero with them. Her honest heart, and her genuine kindness and optimism towards creating a new world in which Quirked and Quirkless lived side by side.

And as predicted, she was the first one to leap out of her seat, throwing her tightly closed fists into the air. "I'm in! This sounds awesome!"

"Yahoo! Mina cheered at Uraraka's decision to join in the Hero Team, throwing her own hands into the sky as her brown haired friend did, just a few short seconds after Uraraka did so. The two did a double-handed high five once they came within a close range of one another, grinning ear to ear and smiling at one another.

Izuku smiled at her decision to join them in their Hero endeavours as well, thankful for her unconditional and instant support. He'd had a feeling that she'd be the one to show her support for the idea within a matter of seconds, and she'd proven him right.

Looking at Todoroki though…

He looked far, far more sceptical. Stoic, almost. At the best of times, he was mostly emotionless, not really expressing much that would give away his opinions of feelings, other than his actions, which would then be made very clear. But right now, he wasn't showing any of that sort of thing. Nothing beyond the normal icy stare that he gave even his friends at the best of times.

Primarily looking at Izuku, the bi-hair coloured boy seemed to be processing everything that had been explained to him. The concept of becoming Heroes. The concept of showing off and properly using their Quirks to protect people. The risk that they would be running, especially with the new laws now in place against use of Quirks. Essentially, they wouldn't really be Heroes, but Vigilantes of a sort. And a number of practical questions were making their way into his mind as well, as he considered all the various possibilities.

"So, how would we hide our identities?" He asked. It was a question that Mina nor Uraraka had even considered quite yet, but Todoroki had come up with it in a second. "Quirks are unique to each individual… So we'd need to find a way to hide our identities. Plus, unless we find some kind of way to hide what our Quirks are while still using them. How many people do you think are going to be able to use both ice and fire?"

"… I hadn't even thought about that." Mina admitted, her excitement and joyful expression falling at the same time. She looked over to Izuku, hoping he had some idea. "My family would know it was me immediately by my Acid Quirk, and they could report it me if they wanted to…"

That was a sticking point in Izuku's plans, he would admit. He would be fine – Strength - Enhancement was vague, but for everyone else? The fact of the matter was, If they were going to use their Quirks, then they would be putting themselves at a pretty high risk. If someone figured out just how much their Quirks could do, then all they'd need to do is look them up on a register list, and they'd be pretty accurately be able to find out which person was which.

It was like Todoroki had said – What were the chances of someone within the Tokyo area having a Quirk as complex as Half-Cold-Half-Hot? With a sigh, he confessed. "I'll be honest… When it comes to Quirks… We're just going to have to hope that we can either come up with a good, believable lie, or that no one who would recognize our Quirks will."

That wasn't a comforting answer, and Izuku knew it perfectly well. Even as he spoke, Uraraka and Mina looked a bit more uncomfortable with the idea suddenly. It was one thing to try and act like a Hero… But when all the evidence was going to point towards you, then your anonymity wasn't going to be of much security.

And remaining anonymous was pretty much the only line of defence that they had.

"You've got a Strength – Enhancement type Quirk, Deku. That's easy to hide… But what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Uraraka questioned, showing a more concerned, borderline panicked expression.

"W-With your Quirk, its pretty easy." The black haired boy said, already with a convincing idea for her fake Quirks name. "We can just say your Quirk is 'Gravity Manipulation' or something. That should at least give you a bit of protection. The trick would be just not letting anyone know that you need to touch objects to make them float." He then turned over to Todoroki, who seemed to be waiting for what his fake Quirk would be, and how he'd be expected to hide his actual one. "With you, Todoroki, we can say you have Temperature Control. Again, we'd just have to find a way to trick people into thinking that you can use whatever element from whatever on your body, not just cold for right, and hot for left."

A few hand gestured, and careful thinking when they were out on the field… And they could still probably at least obscure their Quirks, give them some sort of semblance of secrecy. Make them harder to pin down.

Taking a step forward though, Mina looked at Izuku. "What about me?"

His green tips obscuring his eyes partially as he looked up at her, regret visible in his equally green iris, Izuku let out a small sigh. "…I honestly don't know, Ashido. I can't think of anything that would hide your Quirk well. Unless we can pass if off as a dissolving agent of some sort… Plus, considering you need to secrete Acid from your skin in order to use your Quirk, and your skin is very easy to identify, and your horns and eyes too… You're the one who's going to be the most at risk…"

Not for the first time in her life, Mina cursed her abnormal appearance. Izuku was right. Doing this Hero thing, when she looked the way she did… No matter how someone looked at it, specifically when it came to her, it was a very dangerous thing to try and do… If she gave up even a single shred of evidence as to who she was… That could mean game over.

She could end up putting the others at risk is she screwed up just once.

These were things that Izuku hadn't thought about until Todoroki had mentioned them. And it was a good thing that they had been brought up. Focused more so on the training to be able to use his Quirk enough to even attempt this sort of thing, making notes that could help him, and trying to keep on top of his work that he had to do for classes… It had just slipped his mind.

They were the first things that Todoroki had thought of though. Asking him to join them had been a wise choice, if only just for this feedback and questioning, forcing Izuku to consider things they might not have until it was too late.

Noteworthy though, Todoroki wasn't rejecting the idea outright. He was expressing his concerns at the validity of the idea, yes, but he wasn't outright saying he wanted nothing to do with it.

"As for your 'hiding our identity' question…" Izuku carried on, walking to where he normally rested at night, and reaching underneath the mattress. From underneath the bed, he pulled out a large number of plastic bags, all filled to the brim with wools, leather, and various other fabrics within. "If we're gonna be Heroes… We'd need costumes and Hero names. So we can keep our faces and names hidden."

"Hold up, you know how to sew?!" Uraraka questioned, apparently shocked beyond belief by this revelation.

Slightly taken aback by this vocal shock, Izuku stuttered on a couple of his words before regaining his normal speaking abilities. "Y-Yeah, I-I – I learned back when I was living back home. Kacchan's parents were fashion designers… So he knew a bit about it, and he taught me a bit. Just the basic stuff… I picked up the rest on my own."

"Wait, were you planning on making all our costumes yourself?" the Zero Gravity Quirk user had made her way over to Izuku, and was rummaging through one of the bags that he had, looking over plastics, wool and other stuff within them.

"Well… Yeah."

"Hey, lemme help!"

"D-Do you know how to sew?

"Of course I do!" Uraraka grinned. "I told you my family is poor, didn't I? Well, I had to learn to sew to repair stuff, to save a bit of money wherever we could. I'm actually pretty good at it! If we split duties, we can probably make the costumes pretty quickly!"

"A-Awesome! A-And about Hero names…"

For her part, Mina was remaining intentionally silent as the group discussed costumes and the ideas of Hero names and whatever else they had to go over before Todoroki would come to a decision.

She hadn't considered it throughout beforehand, but the fact was, because of her Quirked mutations and utterly inhumane appearance…. She stood out. She stood out as clear as lava in a forest. And because of her Quirk worked, some of her unusual features had to be on display for the naked eye to see in order for her to use her Quirk. In order to be a Hero, she had to risk her very identity every single time she wanted to throw any sort of attack, or use her powers. It was like Izuku said. Even if they lied about her powers, her appearance was still going to make going out at all a huge risk

What could she do? Use a hood to cover up her horns? To try and conceal as much of her face as possible? Could she get away with a face mask and a bandana to hide as much skin around her face as she could? What about her arms and hands? Could she try and keep some loose, Acid-proof material around there to it would conceal her forearms as much as possible?

Was doing these things even possible? Did an Acid-Proof fabric even exist?

As much as she wanted to help Izuku in his Hero plan…

Could she? Wouldn't she just be in the way? A danger if someone figured out who she was?

A liability, almost?

The Quirked girl cursed her appearance once more. Her own Quirk was screwing her over.

She did envy people who had Quirks that they could easily conceal. Those lucky people wouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing happening to them, instead just having to focus on how to best hide the origins of their Quirks. Todoroki would just need a hood or a hat of some kind, and he'd be sorted. Uraraka wouldn't even need that, and nor would Izuku. Their normal anatomy was absolutely perfect for helping them hide who they were. As long as they could conceal their faces, they would be fine.

But she wasn't as lucky.

Would it be better for them if she didn't join in their Hero ways? If she instead stuck to the side-lines, and helped them practice and train when they weren't actually doing Hero things? Her desire to see this movement work, to bring some light onto the benefits of Quirks in society outshone her desire to be an actual Hero herself, awesome as it sounded. The most important thing was that the Heroes were a success, and her wants and needs took second place to that.

"…o if you could give me a rough drawing of the Hero costume you wanted, Todoroki, I could probably make yours within a week. Ashido, could you do the same with Uraraka?" Izuku just got out of explaining something to both of his friends, and then addressed Mina, but she was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice him speaking to her. "Ashido?... Ashido, you okay?"

Called out of her thoughts, Mina suddenly became aware of her surroundings again, and was greeted with three sets of eyes all focused on her. "Huh? Oh, sorry Midori, I uh, I wasn't paying any attention."

Patient with her, Izuku nodded in his understanding. "Is something bothering you?"

"No, just, thinking." Lied the pink girl, not wanting to cause any unnecessary distress in his already stressful plans. "What was it you said?"

It was very clear that Izuku didn't believe her in the slightest. One of his eyebrows was raised in a show of obvious confusion, though he didn't choose to vocalise it. Instead, he trusted her to speak up if something was bothering her, so he just continued. "For the Hero Costume – Do you think you could maybe draw an idea of what you want your costume to look like, and then give it to Uraraka?"

"Why Uraraka?"

"You're both girls. She has a better understanding of… What you'll need than I will."

Mina just nodded her head.

"It's gotta be something you're happy to wear." Izuku reminded everyone. "Our costumes… They're things that we need to wear with pride. We need to be eye catching as well as proud of what we do. The more people who notice us, the more support we could end up getting from other people."

With his arms crossed, Todoroki tilted his head slightly to the right. "What about your Quirk? Have you managed to overcome the bone breaking?"

"Sort of... I can use my Quirk to jump from place to place…. But I can't really control it properly. I don't have a real way of stopping yet. And my attacks…" Truth be told, he hadn't even worked on attacking. He'd not thrown a punch with One For All since he'd rescued Katsuki from those kidnappers.

He didn't have nearly enough control for it.

"Don't rush this, Midoriya." Warned Todoroki. "You're not going to be able to help anyone if you aren't careful."

"…Yeah, I know."

"And what about Bakugou? If you're telling us about this idea, you must've told him, right?"

"…He said he doesn't want anything to do with this."

"Wait, he did?" Uraraka questioned, her voice pepping up noticeably as she did so. "I thought that was why he kept visiting the exercise rooms."

* * *

Katsuki unleashed another series of explosions in his hands. He'd been at this for quite a while now, his hands throbbing, and the skin on his palms starting to peel off slightly. But he refused to stop unleashing explosion after explosion.

There was a limit to how much power that he could put out when it came to his Quirk. As he'd grown older, used his Quirk more, and experimented with it, he'd discovered his limits, and honed himself to be able to surpass them when the time came – An occurrence which was all too common during the days he and Izuku spent rescuing Quirked people off the streets.

Now he was taking it one step further. Izuku wanted to become an actual Hero. Like something straight out of a comic book, he seriously wanted to give this notion of protecting Quirked and Quirkless alike by using the powers that they had to fight against people who would use their Quirks for selfish reasons, and to stop the discrimination against the Quirked – With force if that was what it was going to take.

As far as Katsuki was concerned, Izuku was being idealistic about the whole thing.

"Die!" He screamed, blasting another huge detonation onto the walls. If the walls broke, it didn't matter. Their teacher Ishiyama – the blocky Cement Quirk user – Could repair it using his Quirk. It was the strongest, sturdiest thing here, so Katsuki wasn't holding anything back.

Quirks weren't accepted, and they weren't going to be. Not for a very long time, until all of them were long dead. Toshinori was the person who had taught the both of them that the gene that causes Quirks in people is a dominant gene, so unless everyone who had it was hunted to extinction, the world becoming a superhuman society was just an inevitability. It might take twenty years, or it could take four hundred. Whatever the case, it could happen, if the people liked it or not.

But right now, when Quirks had just become a thing within society… They were feared, and no amount of good publicity was going to convince people that the Quirked were anything other than dangerous mutant freaks that needed to be contained and controlled.

Izuku was fighting against that though. He just didn't know how to stay down. He wasn't even a natural, but he refused to back down on his stance that the Quirked still deserved their basic rights.

If there was one thing about Izuku that Katsuki did respect, above everything else, it was that.

Katsuki refused to back down, but Izuku? He didn't seem to know how to back down.

Even in the face of danger, like when they'd fought against those Quirkless assaulters who had tried to stab and maim Ashido, he had remained steadfast, even while shaking in fear, refusing to move or abandon the girl he didn't even know. In the face of being ostracised by his classmates for standing by a Quirked animal in human's skin, he'd stared them down and told them he wouldn't abandon his friend. In the face of getting burned by Todoroki's fire, he'd taken the blast and forced the guy to calm down. In the face of his friend being kidnapped, he literally broke his bones in order to save him.

Bikers, bigots, broken bones, entering a school for Quirked and being completely out-casted by the people he now lived with, people who had dangerous power that could rip him apart in an instant…

He was still trying to become a Hero, to prove all of them wrong.

That was something that simply had to be respected, even if Katsuki didn't want to admit it. No matter how moronic it was to him, no matter how much he told Izuku that he was insane for trying to do all of these things, he still went ahead and did them.

Maybe that made him the stronger one of the two.

Still, he was weak. Especially with the way that Quirk of his worked. It made him weak.

Unless he could control it…. And Katsuki was confident that he'd figured out a way to help speed that process up.

"Kacchan?"

Finishing unleashing one final, powerful blast against the wall, Katsuki used the momentum from the detonation to spin around on his heels to look at the small party of people who had just entered the door. The usual squad, Izuku, Mina, Uraraka and Todoroki had all come along to apparently see him, led by the aforementioned brunette girl to his location.

His hands were still smouldering, and lightly bleeding from the continued use of his Quirk. He'd been at this for a few hours now, ever since Kirishima had come to speak to him regarding their truce, or whatever it was that they were in the middle of now.

"Told you he was in here." Uraraka commented, holding the door open for the others to enter the concrete corridor before her.

Looking around, Mina and Izuku were able to notice all the cracks along the sides of the walls, all the scuff makes and slightly singed parts of the room and walls, the aftermath of an explosion being unleashed against them. Some areas had suffered huge splits and chunks blasted out of the walls and floors, which just served to further highlight how powerful Katsuki's Quirk was. It wasn't a subtle, nor was it one that was easy to hide… But it was one hell of a powerful ability, without question.

Upon a closer inspection the camera in the corner of the room was broken. It hadn't been destroyed, but it looked like the battery had died. There was no red recording light on the camera's front, so it wouldn't have been able to keep a track of all of the moves that Katsuki had been doing.

It would help to hide his Quirk if someone had seen him using it in the streets. Or at least obscure it. Explosion wasn't exactly the most difficult Quirk to figure out, but the less footage they had of its user, the better.

Was that why he had chosen this particular room?

How hard had he been training at this for?

"What's going on, Kacchan?" Izuku questioned, finally asking for the answers to the most obvious question on his mind right now.

"Someone's gonna need to keep your Quirkless ass safe." He responded as flatly as he could get, and as straight to the point as he'd ever been in his entire life. "With your fuckin' Quirk, you're not gonna last five minutes as any sort of Hero on your own. So, I've been practicing with my Quirk." Pointing with his index and middle finger towards the camera, he explained. "I don't think the dipshits that run this place even know that a camera's dead down here, so we could make this our training grounds."

"You're actually on board with this whole Hero idea then?" Todoroki questioned, sounding genuinely surprised.

"I'm fuckin' here training, aren't I?" The Explosion Quirk user retorted sharply, throwing his arms open to display the absolute destruction that he'd caused within the training room.

Smiling in genuine happiness at his friend's change of heart, Izuku was a few seconds away from actually running up and giving his childhood friend a huge hug with a 'Welcome to the team' speech.

Until he saw that Katsuki's red eyes were aimed directly at him, glaring. "Speaking of training, Deku, your Quirk. Is your control any better?"

"Uh…."

"Not really." Mina put in, before Izuku could make any excuses or stammer filled explanations. "He can barely even use it to move, never mind to throw a punch."

"A-Ashido!"

"Hey, it's the truth, dude."

"Whatever, you dumb fuck." Katsuki muttered. "I think I have an idea about your Quirk."

"Huh?"

Without another word, Katsuki got himself into a fighting stance facing the nearest wall, and, throwing a right hook, as was his trademark, unleashed a loud, large and lethal explosion just in front of him, with no real target other than the air to the side of him. With how much he had unleashed, he had needed to use his feet as a way of counterbalancing the kinetic energy that his own Quirk's activation put back on him.

Once the explosion dissipated and was reduced to nothing but smouldering on his hands, he looked at Izuku once again. "When I use my Quirk to create explosions larger than I can handle, I get recoil, which blasts my hands back. If I wanna avoid this, I have to set myself."

That made sense. If he wanted to avoid the blowback from generating too large a blast, he had to get ready to absorb the force by setting himself in such a way that the force was transferred into the ground – By using his leg as a transference rod, he could make sure that the majority of the force went elsewhere from him.

"Quirks are just a biological feature…. Except yours isn't." Katsuki continued. "We all know how to use our Quirks effectively and it's natural to out on what we have to do. You're still 'Activating' your Quirk. So until you can figure out how to properly use it, you need to set yourself. Some way to equal out the force that you're outputting."

Thinking about this, Katsuki made a number of valid points, which Izuku took into his consideration. His comment about how Quirks were just body functions to those who had them was a good point made, since they had, in most cases, either been born with them, or had had years to learn how to use them. Katsuki hadn't been born with his, it developing later down the line, but it hadn't taken him too long to get used to it. Like an instinct.

And his comments about setting himself were also true, something that he'd noticed whenever he used a large blast. He'd always set his body up so that it would transfer the kinetic energy elsewhere…

The question now was, if it was possible to do the same for One For All.

He muttered to himself as he thought up his ideas. As it stood right now, total control of One For All wasn't going to come instantly, or for quite a while. The only reason he wasn't breaking his bones was because of all the training that Toshinori had given him over the last couple of years, but if he used it too much, then he was going to end up shattering his body…

A way to set his body… So that he wasn't at risk…

A buffer to absorb the force of the Quirk…

A way to shield himself…

To spread the force…

All the way through his body…. Making his own body act like a buffer to the attacks themselves!

"…Kacchan, you're a genius!" Izuku grinned, running over to an empty part of the room, so he was away from everyone else. He had an idea, an idea that he was absolutely confident in. He just needed to get the feeling right, and he'd have it!

Following Izuku's movements with his eyes, Katsuki folded his arms. "You got something?"

"You said you set yourself when you use your Quirk in large doses, right? Well, that's all my Quirk is! It's a huge amount of energy that I can release at once – But doing so breaks my body because it's all focused in one place. So what if I… "

As he spoke, the red lines that ran across Izuku's body when his Quirk was active began to spread all over his entire body – The legs, the arms, the torso and chest, even creating an X symbol over his face and around his eyes. His entire body began to surge with power, enhancing every single part of his body with the utter strength that was One For All.

Like a cloak of sheer power. Izuku's hands gripped onto the empty air like claws taking a tight hold of a prize, and he looked up to his friends, all taken aback by the action.

"…Cloak my whole body in One For All!"

It took absolutely everything that he had to keep up this form as it was right now. Still not used to the force of One For all in a regular fashion, this was a whole new challenge in itself – But if it worked in the way Izuku was hoping that it would, then this could seriously speed up the process of honing this Quirk!

Electricity began to spark off of his body, generated simply from the sheer energy of the Quirk. He stumbled briefly – It was difficult to even move in this state – But he was doing it! He had the Quirk active, and he was holding it!

"Holy crap Deku!" Uraraka spoke with a huge grin on her face, her fists tightly clenched as she witnessed this display of power.

"Think you can move like that?" Katsuki grinned, his hands already crackling with small detonations, eager to push Izuku to the limits, to see if he could handle this new method of using his Quirk.

"I…. I think so." Izuku stated. Moving was hard, but he felt like he could do it. All he needed to do was focus on what he was doing, and focus hard.

"Let's test it then!"

Propelling himself forward with his explosions, Katsuki launched himself straight towards Izuku, his intent to attack him crystal clear. As he approached the struggling One For All user, his hand lurched forwards, and aimed for his friend's chest, where he would end up doing the least amount of damage with his Quirk.

Though he made an attempt to move, maintaining this form and moving turned out to be a far more tricky a task than Izuku had first suspected. His body simply didn't want to respond to his commands, and so, he could do nothing, except just be struck by Katsuki's harsh detonation, blasting him with enough force to knock him backwards.

Continuing his assault with vigour, Katsuki then propelled himself to the side, where he then launched a sweeping kick for Izuku's legs, aiming to knock him off of his feet, and into the ground below him. Once on the floor, he'd be a far easier target to keep blasting, over and over again.

As a counter though, Izuku managed to finally gain control over his movements and pushed back on the ground, causing him to leap backwards a considerable distance. Landing with his hands and feet against the wall, without just splatting into it, Izuku had managed to make a successful dodge against Katsuki's attacks, for the first time while in this mode!

And it had gone exactly as Izuku had hoped it would! Admittedly, the outright explosive power of the Quirk was down by a significant margin, but he was still very easily moving at superhuman speeds, and it was much more preferable to just having his body constantly become shattered!

He was doing it!

He was using his Quirk!

Still, Katsuki launched himself forward once again, repeating the same movements to force his opponent into a corner, this time unleashing more powerful blasts to increase his speeds. In turn, Izuku did the same move again, pushing off the wall to get away, with a repeated success once again!

"Man, they're really going at it!" Uraraka commented from the side-lines, watching as the two unleashed their Quirks over and over again. She was like a kid watching the superheroes fight on the old TV cartoons that Mina remembered watching. "Look at 'em go!"

"Is this really a good idea?" Mina questioned, worried about her friends ending up hurting one another, Normally, she'd be right there with Uraraka cheering on the, frankly, awesome looking battle, but because it was her friends engaged in this combat, she was actually growing concerned for their general well-being. "I mean, Bakugou really doesn't seem to be holding anything back."

As she said this, Katsuki unleashed what could only be described as a wave of explosions towards Izuku, ripping the ground underneath him to shreds. Izuku was able to scatter out of the way, and was now trying to find a way to directly counter attack the red eyed Explosion user. The more he moved, the more natural his movements seemed to become, as he adjusted to the power that was now running throughout all of his veins.

"This isn't anything compared to what they want to do." Todoroki commented.

"Huh?"

"Midoriya wants to change the world, and to do that, he's chosen to become a Hero, because he thinks that it's going to help change the hate the Quirkless have towards us. We've all chosen to do this with him, because we all share the same dream that he has… But Katsuki is here for a different reason." The oldest friend to the two of them explained. Both the girls looked over towards him as he spoke, hooked on the explanation he was giving. "Bakugou basically owes Midoriya his life. He stood by Bakugou when he was ousted as being Quirked, and for that, Bakugou is willing to do whatever it takes to help Midoriya realize his goals. But he's aware of the state of the world, and the harsh truths of it. Maybe more so than all of us."

Getting in close, Izuku tried his very first punch with his new technique – A straight forward reverse punch with his right hand, only for Katsuki to easily dodge the simple attack, and then unleash a detonation under his ribcage.

"Gaaak!"

"Bakugou doesn't intend to let Midoriya try being a Hero without pushing him to the limits – To make sure he can handle it." Todoroki finished off, watching at Katsuki pinned Izuku against the nearest wall, his palm pressed against his face. "The fighting in here… It's not even close to what it's going to be like when we actually go out as Heroes. And Bakugou knows it."

In his other hand, a small series of explosions and sparks jumped out from Katsuki's palm, highlighting his face as he grinned

"Checkmate, Deku."

"Again!"

* * *

Training took up the majority of that day, and left him with a number of cuts and bruises, but once he was done, he went straight to his room, and locked the door.

Izuku had a number of rather niche talents, a side effect to his earlier years of aiding Katsuki in hiding his Quirk, and spending his days trying to save Quirked individuals. Random little things that he would pick up on when he was dealing with Quirked people that not a lot of other would. Living with Katsuki for so long had also taught him a great number of things, the aggressive teenager actually holding a surprising number of talents himself, which he'd been made to teach his black haired friend. One of these skills was the ability to sew and craft clothing.

Many times, he had found himself trying to clothe someone whom he had rescued from the streets against prejudice, covering them up in some way with what little he had, from his own clothes, his absent fathers clothes, and anything else he could find. Often though, very few people were fortunate enough to be of either of their sizes. Even more of a mountain in the way of this particular plan of his, Izuku had interacted with multiple Mutant Type Quirked individuals, or just had Mutant features, and therefore, traditional clothing wasn't going to cut it.

Some people Izuku had met had blades within their forearms, a part of their Quirk. Another person had scales as opposed to skin. Some had tusks, some had tails, and one person had four arms as opposed to two. None of which had any official clothing lines. Discrimination against Quirked individuals stemmed deep. Many people didn't even consider them to be Human, but animals. Therefore, alterations to regular clothing was rare, and had to be done either by the individual themselves or by someone who was willing to alter clothing to better suit their Quirk.

So, Izuku had been presented with a choice – Either to help pay for the clothes to be altered, or to learn to make them himself.

He chose to do both.

When the situation called for it, when faced with a serious case where the person was basically without a single object to their names, or when it was outside Izuku's capabilities, he would go and pay for these clothes to be made, as quickly and as efficiently as he could possibly have them made. In those cases, just making sure that the person was clothed was the main priority.

But when these weren't the cases however – Like when he had helped Todoroki off of the streets – He would do whatever he was capable of himself. He would go out, purchase the materials that he would need, and stay up for hours and hours into the late morning, and craft what he could. Katsuki would usually help him in some way, yelling at him like he was the biggest moron on the world when he got a measurement wrong, or used the sewing machine the wrong way. It had helped the black haired boy quickly learn, to avoid Katsuki's screaming at him.

Upon his first meeting with Todoroki, the Half-cold-Half-Hot Quirk user had been wearing a dark blue navy jacket. During their encounter, Todoroki had burned the entire left side of the jacket with his ability to generate fire, turning half of it into nothing but cinders. This was the same encounter that had left Izuku with the burn on his arm. So for a few days, he'd done nothing about it.

Once he was able to however, and once the air between him and the bi-hair coloured teenager was cleared, he had gotten to work. This was one that Izuku didn't ask for any help from Katsuki though. And of course, he could have just gone out and bought another one, but he actually wanted to craft this himself. He wanted to be able to get better at this sort of thing, to be able to create clothes that these Quirked individuals were able to wear, even if it was just Izuku's personal show of good faith and goodwill towards them. To show he cared, that he gave a damn about them. To get better at making these clothes, so he could make more, for more people when they needed it. But above all, he really did just want to show that he was on their side, in whatever way he could.

That particular skill, as it turned out, was really starting to pay off learning.

Two nights after the attack on the High School, Izuku was hunched over his desk. He'd spent about an hour and a half adding people and Quirks into his sketchbook, he then pushed the pad and pencils to the side, and pulled out from underneath the desk, the large bag filled with sewing equipment.

And he got to work.

* * *

 **You get an extra chapter this week to celebrate Mina's badassery that was her screen time in Chapter 144 ^_^**


	12. Mina's Scars - Holding Us Back

In her room, Mina simply laid on her bed, and looked up at the ceiling. Her hands were behind her head, and were starting to go numb, not that she made any effort whatsoever to stop this from happening. She didn't know how long she'd been like this. An hour? Two? Maybe five, for all she knew, not that It mattered in the long run. Her mind was filled with thoughts and things that she felt that were important regarding this whole Hero idea of Izuku's, as well as a few other things.

She didn't know what to think about the current situation, if she was honest. The number of people that they had in the group had grown by two, as Todoroki had now agreed to become a Hero with them now that he was sure that they'd thought this out carefully, and that Izuku was going to be able to handle himself with One For All. That increase in power was a plus for them, no matter what way anyone managed to slice it. And now that Katsuki was on board as well as Uraraka…. Their forces weren't exactly weak anymore.

The main issue now though… Was her.

Izuku had been right when he'd mentioned the difficulty that they would have when it came to concealing specifically her identity. Her Quirk wasn't one that could just be hidden easily. Acid was a very unique Quirk. Even Explosion could be concealed as some sort of Combustion Type Quirk, but Acid had no easily concealed category. No convenient lie to hide behind. No half-truth that could trick anyone, unless they got either incredibly creative, or incredibly lucky.

And assuming they could even lie about her Quirk, the fact remained was… Well, her appearance. Izuku was right. She stood out way too much. Her pink skin, her horns, her black eyes, and pink hair… There wasn't a single other person on the planet who even came close to looking even a small bit like her. And the issue wasn't that it was just dangerous for her. It was dangerous for everyone else too. If the Quirkless or the police found out exactly who she was, then it wouldn't take them long to hone in on students in Yuuei who had Quirks like the ones the Heroes were using.

To put it simply, she was a danger to her friends if she went along with the whole Hero idea.

A fact that… Deeply disturbed her.

Living on the streets for as long as she had, having to treat everyone like they were an enemy waiting to happen, watching her back every second of the day…. To actually make some friends had been one of the most incredible things that had happened to her since she was thrown out of her home. People who could look past her appearance. Some people who were just like her…

And others who weren't. But still treated her like a friend…

The idea of putting them in danger now… That wasn't an idea that Mina even wanted to particularly entertain. She didn't want to bring any sort of trouble to the people who she cared about. But going along with this Hero idea…. That would cause a whole number of issues if she was caught, or they traced her back to Yuuei.

But if she didn't help… Then she felt like she was running away. Away from the fight to change the world, and to make a place of equality or, at the very least, understanding and acceptance. A fight she wanted to take part in every single step of the way, because of the people who were now a part of her life.

Katsuki, Todoroki, Uraraka…. Izuku.

Her friends…

Without really noticing when she did so, her mind wondered back to the first day that she met Izuku and Katsuki, and the emotions and feelings she had when they interacted. She remembered being scared of Izuku due to his Quirklessness… Looking back on it now, it was actually funny to think about. Izuku wouldn't hurt a fly intentionally. She didn't know what she was worried about.

That shy, but heroic black curly haired boy was the only Quirkless person that Mina had met that hadn't immediately tried to gun her down, or do something to make her normal. And that included her own family.

Quirk or no Quirk, Izuku didn't care. He didn't profile or discriminate. Powerless in the face of a world where the majority were filled with hate, and the minority were armed with superpowers, Izuku stood between the two forces and tried to calm them down. To stop the pointless, senseless bloodshed between the two. Even if he'd only stop a few cases…

It was admirable. Incredibly admirable. Something Mina truly respected about him, without any question or doubt in her mind.

Her mind then wandered a week later, when they were packing up to move into the Yuuei dorms after rescuing Katsuki from those recently Quirked kidnappers.

When she had nearly kissed him.

Truth be told, she still, to this day, had no idea why she'd tried to do that. She'd barley even known the guy more than a week, but felt the urge to kiss him hit her, hard, and before she even knew it, she'd leaned in towards him. Neither of them had spoken of it since, and she guessed it was because Izuku was too awkward to bring it up again. She was glad, to be honest, because she was embarrassed about it herself.

She had just seen his burn mark, up his arm, and gently ran her fingers over it. She still remembered how the charred skin looked. It wasn't ever going to fully heal, she knew, just from looking at it. Layers would rot and peel away as his skin died and regrew, but it would always be there. It was his mark of dedication to the union of Quirked and Quirkless individuals in this world. A sign that yes, he'd been hurt by the Quirked just as much as anyone… but he hadn't let it change who he was as a person. He hadn't succumbed to hate. He hadn't used it to justify deplorable actions against people who had nothing to do with it. He….

He'd stayed true to himself. He'd stayed dedicated to his ideals, and he refused to allow even the person who had harmed him to blame themselves.

Such selfless altruistic actions… Such kindness…

Mina had just found herself overwhelmed by those qualities about him… And wanted to kiss him because of them. Because she admired him… Because she owed him so much. He'd stopped her from going down a hate filled path…

Because… She'd grown fond of him, in such a short space of time.

Maybe it was because she'd been subjected to such disgust and segregation her entire life… But finally meeting someone who just didn't care about it, and wanted to help her to be able to live a normal life, despite having these abnormalities…

She wasn't under any illusions that she'd grown feelings for him, very quickly.

How couldn't she? The first person she'd met who hadn't treated her like absolute crap… Who treated her like an equal. Like a person... And he was so gentle and sweet with her…

That was all she'd ever wanted in her entire life. To be treated like she was an actual person. Not like some sort of animal. Not like some kind of freak of nature. Not like some sort of horrible, abysmal creature that had come to wipe out Humanity…

Just… To be treated like she was Mina Ashido.

And Izuku had been the first… The very first person to treat her like she was just like anyone else… And he was just so kind…. Of course she'd end up with a crush on him. She questioned who wouldn't, in her position.

Becoming a Hero… That was a way that she wanted to repay everything he'd done for her. To help him achieve his goals, his dreams. He'd brought hers to life without even realizing that he'd done it. So now, she wanted to do the same for him…

But she couldn't, because she'd wind up being a hindrance to him, and a danger to the entire group.

Her hand was now number from having been rested on for too long, but Mina still pulled it out from underneath her head, and help it upwards towards the ceiling, to look at her own pink skin, her most obvious giveaway. And then, she gently lowered her hand, and ran it against her right horn….

Feeling the scratched, cuts, cracks, and sawed out line against it, hidden underneath her hair. She shuddered at the memory.

When she was younger, when he Quirk first developed… Her family was terrified of her. Absolutely petrified of what she was. What she'd become. This was back during the very beginning of Quirks, where they'd only just started to show up in more and more people. The first recorded Quirk occurred about twenty years ago, although Izuku claimed that they had been around for a lot longer. Regardless, this entire event occurred just seven years ago, when she was still a child… And it haunted her to this day…

* * *

Mina always knew she was different. She'd spent every day of her life reminded of that fact. That she wasn't normal, and probably never could be. That she'd always wind up living her life as a freak of nature. As something that barely even had the right to exist.

She was something that her parents called a 'Demon', but the news called a 'Quirked'. Her family seemed to believe that she was some sort of denizen from Hell, or something like that, because of her Quirk, totally ignorant to what it was that a Quirk actually was. Stuck in old, religious ways, her parents barely even seemed to acknowledge her as a living creature, never mind as a Human.

Born with pink skin and black eyes, her family never even wanted her. They detested her from the second she was pulled from the womb. Had they gotten their way, the child would have been taken from them, never to be seen again for as long as they lived… But this was before the age of Quirked Orphanages, and laws were still, at the kindest, most lenient points towards Quirked children that it ever was in history. Simply putting a quirked child up for adoption wasn't an option either, unless there were a special set of specific circumstances, such as an inability to care for a regular child, never mind a Quirked one. The Ashido family already had a son, which proved that they were capable. No matter their protests, legally, the Ashido family had no choice but to care for her until she was old enough to at least look after herself.

As a baby, Mina grew up essentially within her crib, barely even acknowledged outside of being changed, or being cursed at, or thrown food because no one wanted to go to jail for her death. She picked up talking on her own, and managed to piece together what she could from the words she was surrounded by, though it took her until she was five until she could properly talk because of this. Likewise, she wasn't able to walk without teaching and encouragement until she was four. Neglect had led to her being self-sufficient, able to teach herself how to do everything fundamental to survival.

When her Quirk itself activated, it was in the form of slime that she could just secrete. Gooey in her hands, it resembled the slime that someone could win at fairground games, or purchase from online stores. It had no acidic properties whatsoever originally, but was rather a harmless substance that she would often create and try to find a creative, fun use for it. She ended up smearing it on the walls a lot when she was four and five, trying to create artwork. Once, she ended up 'Painting' the entire living room wall.

And in response, her father beat her bloody, every single time. He wouldn't stop until he at the very least drew blood, just to make the point hit home.

Harshly yelling at her, screaming at her, telling her not to use those disgusting powers of hers again, until the veins in her eyes were red with tears. When Mina was seven, she got the message, and decided that using her Quirk just wasn't worth it, at all. And she stopped.

On top of this, she had never actually gone outside in her life, confined to the Ashido household and ordered to stay silent by her parents, like a trained animal. When they told her to be quiet, she would immediately shut up until her parents left the room, daring not to speak out of turn. For the most part, her brother just let this happen without a word, looking at her with a mixture of pity and some sort of disturbing satisfaction that came from watching someone below them being dominated and tamed. Mina had no friends, barley even had a family, and little to no experience on the world around her.

She basically had no life.

The way, in her mind, it was supposed to be. The way her parents told her it was supposed to be. The only way she knew… So she didn't complain.

When she was eight, however, her horns began to develop. Tiny bits of bone, growing naturally, just above her forehead, nestled in her hair. The discovery of these extremities was not by sight, but rather by Mina's touch. She felt lumps atop her head, and inspected them in the mirror. Upon seeing that they were horns, growing from her skull… She didn't have any doubt they were to do with her Quirk. Or at least, her Quirk was responsible for these things growing out of her head.

Images of her father beating her until her skin was peeled off entered her head, over and over, and she became terrified of these lumps of bone. Horrified at what her family would do if they ever found out about them…

She decided to hide them. To conceal them for as long as she possibly could manage to. She would hide them from everyone until the last possible moment.

For the longest time, Mina was able to hide them using her hair. Naturally curly, they were able to hide the growths. She grew her hair out longer, so that it would be able to conceal more of the horns without her having to do anything. Cutting it herself with a pair of scissors in the bathroom at night, she was able to pass off her hair as being very slow to grow back, which meant she wouldn't be outed the next time she was forced to have a haircut.

After a few months though, this no longer was a viable way to conceal them. By about the eighth month that she'd had these horns, they were about the size of her hand, jutting out inches above her head. Considerably more difficult to hide them from the rest of the world.

But… She still tried… And failed.

When her family saw the horns… It was by complete accident. Mina tried to hide them by wearing hoodies or hats, the latter of which was knocked down by her father's absolute disregard for her, shoving her out of the way of his path. When the horns were first exposed… They were terrified of her, all the more than they had been beforehand. In their eyes, it was just more proof that the Devil had its claws inside Mina….

And they had to rip it out.

She was pinned against the floor by her mother…

While her father went out to his shed, returning brandishing a hacksaw. His intent had been clear.

Without even the slightest form of mercy, or listening to her pleas for even a second, he tried to cut down through her right horn, sawing as much as he could, as quickly as he could.

The pain wasn't even describable. Like having an arm chopped off. Her horns had some nerves internally, and this made it felt like her skull was being split open, but even outside of this, every single time the saw dug into her, she felt the vibrations throughout her entire body - It made her feel sick. Mina had screamed, shrieked, and begged them to stop. Her brother had just watched this all happen in front of him, doing nothing to help her, no matter how much Mina begged with him.

In the end, Mina, in an act of desperation, activated her Quirk and lashed out in whatever way possible, trying to desperately escape from her father and mothers clutches, clawing for escape.

In the time it had taken since using her Quirk last, her slime had developed its acidic properties. What was previously harmless slime, was now deadly, corrosive acid.

And Mina attacked her parents with it. The end result was that she left them with awful, painful, and horrendous acidic burns all over their arms, and in her father's left eye.

A scared eight year old girl had caused her father's left eye to become completely inoperable, rendering him partially blind for the rest of his life, as well as deforming his face, and her mother's arm….

* * *

…And as far as Mina was concerned in the present, her parent's had gotten what they had deserved. They had tried to do that to her, completely unprovoked, so she retaliated, and left them in fear of her. And that was good. That was how things should be. They shouldn't have laid a hand on her in the first place. It was the first time when Mina had learned that actually, she could fight back, that she could protect herself, and that she had the right to exist just as much as anyone else did. It was the first time she had ever been proud of herself.

It made being kicked out as soon as her parents were convinced that she was old enough less of a bitter pill to swallow. Yeah, she missed home sometimes… But not the people.

Yet, for all her pride… Bone didn't grow back. It wasn't ever going to grow back. Her horn was scarred now, just like Izuku's burns, and her body wouldn't ever fully heal. And it wasn't like she hadn't spoken to quirk Specialists, asking them if there was some sort of procedure she could have to repair the horn. The closest that she ever got was a suggestion to glue it, but the issue there was that she didn't have the chunk of her horn that she had lost, and there weren't any materials that could be used as a substitute for it. It was for this reason that she didn't want anyone, or anything, ever touching her horns, for fear that it would cause it to just snap off, leaving her deformed even more than she already was.

Just the idea of losing her horn made her sick to her stomach. She didn't even enjoy entertaining the notion.

"Devils…" She muttered to herself, allowing her arm to flop by her side. "Demons… What a joke... The only Devils and Demons that exist are people like you two…" She spoke to her parents, like they were right in front of her. Venting out the fury she felt towards them that she could never say to their faces… "People like you… The worst kind of people that live in this world… You hated me because you didn't even know what I was… What I am. And what you did to me… You're despicable… "

Even in her imaginary conversation to them, she couldn't quite find the words to express just how much hatred she felt for them, deep down. She just couldn't express the depths of her distaste for the Ashido family she came from. She was never going to be able to express how much she hated them for what they'd done to her.

She'd never felt more justified in her life for what she'd done…

But….

"…Why is it Izuku wants to protect people like you?" She asked, quietly. Unaware that she'd used his first name, just letting it spill out as her thoughts did. She continued, regardless though. "I know he wants to make peace between Quirked and Quirkless… But I don't get it… He knows about people like you…What you do… Why would he want to help people like you…? But… More importantly…" Her gaze went straight back up to her ceiling, where she sighed and thought about everything that had happened to her recently. "…Why does he make me want to save scumbags like you as well?..."

For the longest time, Mina had been dead-set against bigoted Quirkless people, hating every single one of them right down to their very cores. Despising them all because of the things they did…. Because they reminded her of home. Of the things that had been done to her at the hands of her own family. And yet… Izuku made her want to protect those people.

To prove that they were wrong, not that they had a point. To show them that they had a place in society, not that they were animals to be tamed. To show that they were good, not demons.

But she had to protect them too… And she was surprisingly okay with that.

Why? Did Izuku influence her that much? Was it because he was born Quirkless, and he'd proven that not all Quirkless people were bad, or that he wanted to make peace between the two. Was it because he talked endlessly about ending the pointless conflict between the two groups? Was it because Mina held him in such a high regard that she simply just wanted to help him achieve whatever it was that he wanted to achieve, peace between the two groups being one of his goals, without exception?

Or was it simply that his influence was making her a better person altogether?

Without any warning whatsoever, a sudden loud banging on her door caused Mina to shoot upright like she'd just sat down on a pin. Her eyes shot wide open, and out of nothing but sheer surprise and shock, her heart rate started to pump up rapidly. "Ashido? You in there, Ashido?"

It was Izuku's voice calling for her from the other side of the door. Mina felt her heart rate decrease upon recognizing that familiar voice. She let out a long sigh. She could swear that he just materialized whenever she was thinking about the guy. "Yeah, yeah I'm here, hold on."

Making her way over to the door, she quickly undid the lock and opened the door to greet the slightly taller black haired boy with a small smile. Given the nature of her thoughts just moments ago, she wasn't exactly what someone could call happy about seeing him right now, but she couldn't find it in her to just tell him to get lost.

"Sorry I showed up at this time. You mind if I come in?"

"Sure, no problem." Mina widened the door to allow Izuku to enter, hoping that he was just going to be quick about this little visit. It was already late, and she had actually planned on getting some rest before long, hoping to sleep on the subject before coming to a definitive conclusion.

Izuku timidly entered the pink skinned girl's room, and took a look around. He hadn't actually entered her room prior to this day, their usual meetings take place in either his or Katsuki's room. The school provided a certain degree of creativity to each of the rooms, providing materials and some customized textures that the students could apply for, which the resident Design Technology Teacher Tsunagu Hakamata would create with his Fibre Master Quirk. All cynically done so that the students would feel like they existed in less of a prison, but the textiles themselves were woven from a genuine passion for design, as Izuku could tell just by stepping foot inside Mina's room.

It was actually easy to forget that Mina had grown up on the streets over the last couple of years by looking at the place. It was the first time that she'd ever had some space that she could customize to her own desires, and she'd really gone to town with it. The bed duvet, lampshade, and curtains all were of a multi-coloured camouflage-like pattern, combining turquoise and dark purple colours. She had multiple rugs placed down atop the wooden floor, one scattered with love hearts on it, the other once a more traditionally woven pattern, slid half underneath a desk. The desk itself was completely bare, Mina not in possession of anything to actually put atop it. An empty bookcase, courtesy of the school, resided in the corner, without a single piece of paper to occupy it.

"…You… Really took advantage of those textile designs, huh?" Izuku absently commented as he looked around the room, taking in the sight.

"Uh huh." Mina nodded, shutting the door. "Cute, right?"

All Izuku did was nod. He wasn't the best judge of character when it came to things that were 'cute'. He himself hadn't bothered all that much with custom made things. He'd requested some of the materials in their raw, unaltered form for the costume designs, but he hadn't requested anything to be custom made. He hadn't felt the need.

The resident of the room pulled up one of the desk chairs for Izuku to sit at, and set it up opposite her bed, which she then jumped onto with crossed begs. Grabbing her ankles with her feet, she watched Izuku sit down and face her. "So, what's up?"

Reaching into his pocket, Izuku produced a couple of fabrics, and held them in front of Mina. "Uraraka sent me down here. She wanted me to ask you a few questions about what you're gonna want for your costume."

"…Oh." Was all Mina could respond with. Given her indecision about actually joining the Hero Team plan, the costume was sort of a moot point at this particular moment in time. "Why didn't she just come over herself?"

"She said it would be better if I came since we're closer." Explained the young man, passing her the fabrics in her hand. "She just wants to know what you want the costume to be made out of. We can combine it with some other materials to increase the durability, and the outer layer will be the actual design itself, but this is going to be the inner layer, so she wants you to pick the one that's most comfortable."

"This one." Mina answered, passing back the one in her left hand. It was a softer and less irritating texture than the one in her right, by a country mile.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Alright…" Putting the chosen texture in his trouser pocket, and the one that she hadn't chosen into his jacket pocket, before pulling out a phone from the same compartment. "And…. Well, this is gonna sound a bit weird… But I need to take a picture of your horns, and where they come out of your head."

The only response Mina gave was to look at the guy with a mixture of confusion and downright terror.

"Uraraka says she has an idea for a hood that should keep your hair and horns covered, but the design will need to have these little hooks that go around your horns to keep the hook in place. She asked me to get a picture so she can – "

"You're not touching my horns, Midoriya. You're not going anywhere near them."

This was where Mina drew the line. Her gratitude and crush on Izuku none withstanding, she simply refused to allow anyone to touch her horns. Under any circumstance.

Izuku had to just blink a couple of times at the statement, unsure of what it was that he was supposed to do here. Uraraka had said that the picture was crucial to making sure that the costume was going to be safe for Mina, and to make sure that it was going to work as she had planned. Without the costume, Mina's identity was going to be in serious danger.

Attempting to gently convince her, he spoke in a softer tone than previously. "A-Ashido, I only need to look so Uraraka can – "

 _"I said you're not going anywhere near my damn horns!"_

That time, Mina had yelled at him, and it had been very loud. As loud as when they had first met, and with an equal amount of fury behind it. Her screech had made Izuku jump back slightly in utter surprise, not expecting anything even slightly close to what Mina had just done.

The two looked at one another, Mina's eyes showing an anger Izuku hadn't been sure even existed within his friend, while she looked back at him with hurt shock.

He hadn't meant to offend or upset her. That was the last thing that he had wanted to do. He hadn't known that she was so sensitive when it came to her horns… He had to remind himself that being Quirked was still a stigma, actually having had forgotten briefly for a short while due to being surrounded by Quirked people all the time.

Mina was the one who broke the exchange first, looking down to the floor in a mixture of embarrassment and shame. Izuku had no idea about her horns. She'd never uttered a word about them to any other living being. He had no way of knowing. How could he? He wasn't even asking for himself, but because someone else needed information to keep her identify safe – Everything about this entire situation was totally selfless, but she'd acted out because of simple fear regarding her extremities.

Suddenly, all she wanted was company.

"…I… I'm sorry, Ashido." Izuku apologized, glancing over to the wall, before turning himself around. "I…. I didn't mean to upset you in any way. S-sorry to bother you…. I'll go tell Uraraka to figure something else out."

"Don't." Requested the young girl, pulling her legs up so that she could hug them against her chest, resting her nose just atop her knees, but keeping her gaze downwards. "Don't go yet?"

Looking back at her, Izuku was filled with, primarily, confusion at Mina's actions, unsure of what it was exactly that she was going through. Was she having some sort of mood swing…? Or was something affecting her from the other students, or something that he had no idea about? Either way… Seeing her like this, he couldn't just leave right now.

He turned back around, and made his way over to her bed, and sat down next to her. "…Okay. I'll stay for a while." He paused for a second, waiting to see if Mina intended to say anything. She didn't though, keeping all her attention focused on one point on the floor. "…You want to talk about it?"

"I…. I'm not sure if I can…" The Acid Quirk user said quietly. "It…. It hurts just to think about it."

"… Is it… From before I met you?"

She nodded, slowly.

"Oh." Izuku made a noise to show that he understood. Truth be told, he would have wanted Mina to talk to him about it had she been comfortable about doing so. But he didn't want to force her to do anything that she didn't want to. That she didn't feel comfortable doing. That she just couldn't talk about, for her own mental stability….

He wouldn't force her to.

"…You don't have to say anything." He assured her gently, placing a hand on her shoulder awkwardly on the one nearest to him, unsure of how he was supposed to comfort the girl to his side. "I-If you're not comfortable talking about it…. Then you don't have to."

"I'm sorry…"

"I-It's alright."

"I don't just mean about… That though." The pink girl said with a small sigh to her voice. "I…. I was thinking about what you said… About me being a Hero… You're right…" Though it hurt to have to vocally admit it… "You're right… I know your right… My Quirk… My skin, my appearance… I'd just be in your way, wouldn't I?"

"Hey, I-I never said that!"

"It's true though." Hanging her head in what looked like shame, Mina just began to let her brain tumble out all the worries and doubts that she had about herself without thinking, or reservation. Even when she caught herself doing it, the words just kept tumbling out. "I wanna help, I really do… You've helped me out so much since I met you… And I wanna be a Hero to help repay you for everything that you've done for me… But… Look at me. I stand out way too much – If anyone ever finds out who I am, then you're going to get into so much danger… Everyone will. And even if we could hide what I looked like, and we could hide my Quirk…. There isn't anything that would be durable enough to withstand my Acid. It'd corrode and dissolve anything that it touched, and I'm not gonna be any help to with if I can't use my Quirk… So I can either use my Quirk and risk everyone figuring out who we are… Or I can not use my Quirk and be useless as a Hero… Not gonna be a lot of good if those are my options, am I?..."

The sad truth was, Izuku knew she was right, as much as he didn't want to acknowledge it. Even as he had said it to her himself, he hadn't wanted to accept it. To face that this was something that they had to consider…. Leaving her behind. Leaving her out of the picture because her joining them would be too risky. Would put too many of them at risk…

Feeling his free hand tighten up into a fist, Izuku suddenly felt frustration and anger building up rapidly in his chest. Mina had been nothing but honest and helpful and just a generally good person for the entire time that he'd known her. A person who had quickly grown into a close, trusted friend. The first person to jump on the Hero bandwagon and support his idea without hesitation, simply because she believed in it, and in him.

She was an example of a changed person, someone who showed that hatred could be cured, and that people who harboured those feelings could become better for it. Even when her hate was justified… She had overcome it.

And now, faced with the opportunity to do something she wanted to do, because she believed in the idea and the good it could do… Her appearance was what was holding her back.

It was unfair.

It was unthinkable.

It just….

…It was the way that their world worked.

"…I'm going to find a way to make you a Hero costume that'll work." Izuku said, with meaning behind every word that he used. "I'll figure something out."

* * *

…Of course, doing that was something that was easier said than it was actually done.

Research into acid-proof materials was one that didn't bring up any particularly promising results. According to the internet, acid proof materials consisted of poly fabrics, none of which Izuku had easily to hand. Plus, Izuku wasn't certain that he could trust the information that he came across, since many of the sites he came across were Anti-Quirked. Sure specific material had come under scrutiny since Quirks had become mainstream, people quickly figuring out that people who had special requirements needed to have specific material.

Fake counterfeits were common now on the web, and anti-Quirked sites were some of the worst offenders… If Izuku planned on making a costume that Mina could wear without risk, then it had to be authentic material. Something that she could use without risk of the materials just dissolving into nothing while she used her Quirk.

Other information that he came across as he surfed the web were metals that were resistant to acidic qualities. Mostly alloys of nickel-copper and aluminium. There were some pure metals that could be resistant to acidic qualities, but Izuku knew that alloys were inherently stronger. That was basic high school chemistry.

The main issue that he had then was the fact that none of these materials would simply allow acid to seep through them, while retaining their dangerous and offensive qualities. Even if Izuku could get a hold of them, Mina wearing them wouldn't accomplish much for her, if her Quirk wouldn't be able to phase through it… So he needed to come up with a way of combatting that issue too.

Further issue resided in the fact that these materials… He had no way of knowing if they would be able to withstand Mina's Quirk…

"…I guess I'll have to try getting hold of various selections…" He muttered to himself, going over the pages of research that he had written. "See what works best for her… After that, I might be able to figure out the best material combinations for the job…" Rising from his seat in the main living area of the dorms, he made his way just a few feet to his immediate left, facing a bookcase that had been installed for the purpose of allowing the students access to studying sources. He browsed through all the chemistry and physics books on the shelves, pulling out a couple and resting them on the main table where he was working. Immediately he returned to the shelf, and dug out a design book that had fashion advice within it. "I have to consider what sort of threat to use as well… I suppose I'll just have to use some of the acid-proof materials… But then the durability comes into question…"

He blinked, trying to envision the costume that Mina would need… In order to cover her eyes, he already had an idea – She needed a Ski-mask, with a black tinted screen. The logic there was simple – It would hide her uniquely black eyes. Of course, he would lace it with acid-proof materials where he could, but its main purpose was to hide her eyes and as much of his skin as it could.

That was going to be an easy task – He'd just go to a sports store and purchase one. If they refused service because of his uniform indicating him as Quirked, he'd just sneak out again with regular clothing. It wasn't going to be a difficult thing to get a hold of.

In terms of her face, what she needed next was a bandana. Like one that cowboys wore in the western movies he'd seen, that went above their noses and covered their mouths and chins. She could tuck that underneath the ski-mask to keep it in place, and that would at least cover up her face. That would need to be home-made of acid-proof materials, just in case the worst came to worst.

How she was going to secrete her Acid… That was an issue here. Izuku had an idea regarding her arms… But he'd need to play around with it a bit before he had anything definitive.

Sitting back in his chair, he looked at all the resources that he had in front of his, and covered his nose with the palms of both of his hands, creating a dome around the protrusion, and took a sharp inhale. He'd been researching this sort of thing for quite a while now, left on his own while Katsuki and Uraraka were designing their costumes. Katsuki had a clear idea of the costume that he wanted, demanding something intimidating and fear-inducing. He knew how to craft, sure, but he didn't know how to design, which was where Uraraka came in. As for Todoroki, he had already left the school grounds on an errand for Aizawa-sensei, leaving Izuku on his own to design the clothing while Mina studied – Academics were not her strongest point.

Izuku had told her to leave the stress of designing the costume to him while she worked on boosting her academia, which she was grateful for.

Curiosity was filling Izuku's head as he looked over everything he was working with, shifting through page after page. What Mina had done when he'd asked to see her horns… He hadn't expected it. Not in a thousand years had he ever come close to expecting such a… Harsh response.

It made him wonder what had happened to her in the past to make her so hostile to the very notion of someone touching them. Clear trauma seemed apparent to Izuku by the way that she acted and seemed to feel regarding the extremities. Fear, anxiety, hostility towards the notion, an inability to talk about it – All signs of a past event that had scarred her mentally and emotionally.

Some of the things Izuku had seen during his years as a Quirkless 'Vigilante' if one could call what he did that alongside Katsuki, he'd seen some messed up things. Stab wounds, broken bones, burned skin – That was the stuff he saw on a good day.

Mutilated individuals, their various adaptations sawed and cut off to make them look more Human. People missing extra fingers, bones, even arms in some very disturbing cases…. Many Mutant types in particular dared not step for outside for fear of those assaults. Izuku had noticed the various scars all over his classmate Ojiro's Tail Quirk, no doubt from those very same attacks.

When he'd first met Mina, she was the target of such an attack….

Had she received such poor treatment due to her horns previously?

"I do hope you're planning on clearing all of this up once you're done with it, Midoriya."

Unaware of the approach of two people as he'd been lost in thought, Izuku tilted his head upwards to see Yaoyorozu towering over him… And to her side, Kirishima, his hands stuffed into his pockets, and an expression that, for once, expressed neutrality towards him.

"Oh, Yaoyorozu… Kirishima." Izuku hesitated to answer to the presence of either of them, knowing for a fact neither were particularly fond of him anyway.

Kirishima was a no brainer, but Yaoyorozu had made it clear that she didn't trust him either, and that one was because of Kirishima directly, and the way he had acted during their dorm introductions. She had sided with the Hardening Quirk user's anti-Midoriya stance, and had shown little other than distain for him since.

The aforementioned Hardening Quirk user took a step forward towards the table, reaching out and picking up one of the many books Izuku had stacked up in a pile, and read the cover aloud. "Advanced Chemistry, Volume Four….I had a feeling you were the type of person who studied, but damn, this is well above what I was expecting."

"Y-Yeah…"

"What's that you're working on?" the tall girl questioned, looking at Izuku's notes with an interest in her black eyes.

"It's… It's some clothes, for Ashido." Izuku honestly answered, though he left out the part about it being designed to conceal her identity. "She was worried about going into town…" Not a total lie. "…But she wanted to get some clothes that weren't going to get ruined if she used her Quirk… So I said I'd look into it for her. See if I could make anything for her."

This sentence seemed to impress Yaoyorozu, who folded her arms and shifted her weight onto her left leg, shooting a glance towards Kirishima, and then back towards the One For All holder. "You're able to design clothing?"

"Kacchan's the one who taught me. I'm just struggling to find some fabrics that are acid proof…" his brain suddenly stopped, and he reminded himself of who exactly he was speaking to- Two people who had shown him little but disgust throughout the entirety of his time here. Two people who never had a kind word to say about him, instead showing only open contempt towards him, for anything he did.

And right now, they were being friendly, or at least social with him. His suspicion quickly elevated itself, and he instinctively switched towards a more defensive tone. Covering up his work, he looked at the pair of them with an expression of defiance.

"What do you two want?" Not bothering to hide that he was now suspicious of the two of them, for very obvious reasons, Izuku questioned the pair of them with the intention of discovering what it was that they wanted from him. Were they looking for some sort of material to use to make him look bad? Were they trying to discover what he was up to in an effort to spread a fear campaign of some kind? Or did they just feel like messing with him?

He was right to be suspicious of them, of course, and it appeared that both the spikey red haired boy, and raven haired girl accepted this. In fact, they seemed prepared for it, aware that they were destined to receive peculiar looks form the black haired boy with green highlights.

For a few seconds, no one said a word, as they just looked at one another.

It was Yaoyorozu who broke the silence. "Kirishima told us what you did the other day. When those bikers attacked the school."

Blinking hard, the curly haired boy looked towards Kirishima, who was returning the look with stoic expression, denying nothing, and by extension, confirming what Yaoyorozu was saying by his lack of words.

Izuku wasn't sure what to say in response to that, so he simply came out with an "…Oh."

Nodding, the Creation Quirk user continued. "He explained how quick you were to act… To oppose those Quirkless bikers when they attacked. I'll confess, I wasn't entirely certain why you needed me to create you a weapon that day, but Kirishima's explanation fits what he says you did perfectly. It sounds… Rather heroic, in my opinion."

"I just…" Struggling to find the right words, the Quirkless born student paused mid-way through his explanation of his actions before starting up again. "It was just the right thing to do."

"Not a lot of Quirkless people would say that." Kirishima spoke for the first time in a while, locking his crimson red eyes with Izuku's green ones.

"It's like I said… I'm on your side."

"You understand how insane a concept that is to us, don't you?" Yaoyorozu questioned, tilting her head to the side. "A lot of Quirked people have to suffer from unrestricted prejudice, but the ones that are lucky like me are just simply looked down on – So you must understand how hesitant we are to believe that."

"Yeah." Izuku responded without hesitating, speaking with nothing but honesty that even the most jaded individual could identify. "Of course I understand. I haven't held it against anyone since we entered the dorms. Quirkless people… We've done a lot of horrible things to Quirked people. It's not like I can blame you for not trusting me... It's not like I agree with that sort of prejudice that a lot of Quirkless people show towards you…. Kacchan's my best friend, and I had to watch him go from being one of the most popular people in our school to… A bullied drop out, just because of his Quirk. I ended up the same way because I refused to let everyone else treat him like dirt. I know it's not the same thing, but I understand why don't trust me, or other Quirkless people."

Venting about his own middle school persecution because he had stood by Katsuki without thinking, Izuku quickly realized that he'd gone off track with the topic of the conversation, but he stood by his words regardless. He meant it when he said that he was disgusted by the acts of xenophobia towards Quirked He couldn't think of anything else to say to convey just how much he despised the rhetoric that ruled society.

He just couldn't.

"I trust you."

Eyes widening at the words spoken by the black haired girl, Izuku just stopped and looked at her. She returned his shocked expression with a smile of kindness, one that Izuku hadn't received from anyone outside his circle of friends for weeks.

"I don't think you're a bad person. I think I may have been guilty of confirmation bias myself."

Yaoyorozu then took a step forward, getting another look at the notes that Izuku had made. Reading through them quickly, she then opened up her jacket, revealing that underneath it, she was wearing a crop top that left her stomach completely exposed. With a final glance at Izuku's notes, her Quirk activated from her stomach, creating a purple glowing effect as from her exposed skin, a pile of white fabric appeared by Izuku's feet.

"You're making clothes for Ashido, right?" She inquired, making sure of what he was doing. When Izuku nodded, flummoxed by what was at his feet, she proceeded to explain. "My Quirk lets me create anything as long as I know the makeup of what I'm creating, but it also lets me mix materials in order to make my own spin on them – That's a polyester based fabric with acid resistant alloys mixed into the seams. It should be totally acid proof; Perfect for Ashido."

Izuku looked at the pile of fabric, then up at its creator, whom was now zipping her jacket back up, then back down to the fabric, and then back to Yaoyorozu.

"Is it not enough?"

"N-No, it's… Thank you, Yaoyorozu." Izuku bowed his head in gratitude, unable to say anything else to express the sincerity in his voice. With this sort of material…. He'd be able to make the perfect costume for Mina, without question. All it would need is some wool dye and a bit of sizing….

This would work perfectly! Of course, in order to keep up the lie, he'd have to make some casual clothes for her so Yaoyorozu didn't end up questioning where the material for Mina's supposed casual clothes went, but that was a very small price to pay.

Both Yaoyorozu and Kirishima said their goodbyes, reminding Izuku to clean up the table before he left to start work on the clothes. Though Kirishima had barely said a word, his mere presence there had helped Izuku to feel more at ease around him in the future.

Which was exactly the plan the two of them had had.

Once away from the Quirkless teenager, Kirishima activated his Hardening Quirk on both his forehead and his right hand, and proceeded to punch himself in the face as hard as he could – Just to try and vent the built up frustration and anger he'd been holding back. Sparks flew off the contact point at Kirishima displayed his gritted, sharpened teeth. "I hate talking to the damn guy. That was painful to do."

"At least with some luck, that'll make him trust us a bit more…" Yaoyorozu commented, wiping sweat from her forehead. The activation of her Quirk had been a bit strenuous, since mixing materials in order to make new ones wasn't something that she used her power for very often. When she did use it for such a purpose, it left her drained, like always. Part of the sweat was also from the nervous anxiety that she'd had when it came to having to interact with Izuku at all. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I don't like him… But a lot of what he says does seem to sound genuine."

"Yeah, the Quirkless also sound pretty genuine when they say we're monsters who need to be contained." Responded the red haired teenager, scratching at the spot he'd struck on his face. "Think about it – He wouldn't have gotten into Yuuei if he couldn't tell a convincing lie. Even the Quirkless wouldn't just let someone in who flat out said 'I'm going to cause all hell inside the school'."

"I suppose you have a point…" Sighed the Creation Quirk user, saddened to a certain degree.

As she did so, Kirishima patted her on the back, having to reach his hand rather high in order to do so, offering her a smile as he did so. "You did good. Wouldn't've been able to pull this one off without you, Yao-momo, so thanks. We're gonna figure out what he'd hiding at this rate, I'm sure of it. When we do, we'll expose him and let everyone in the dorms know exactly what kind of a person he is."

"What're you hoping to find, anyway?"

"Notes about us, our Quirks, photos, reports, videos, blog posts, whatever. Something that could be used against us if he handed it to the Quirkless. Proof that he's just been spying on us. Something we can use to show people that he's just like the rest of the Quirkless."

"Right…"

"Speaking of which, is Jirou on board yet?"

"Not yet… She said she still needs to think things over."

"Talk to her again. She'll listen to you. I'm gonna head over to Class B's dorm. I know a couple people there who're worth talking to."


	13. Designers Risks

"Uraraka… Can I ask you a question?"

It was a pretty flat opener to a conversation, but it really was all Mina had up her sleeve. With both Uraraka and Izuku working at all points during the day to create the costumes for this whole Hero idea, neither one had a large amount of time for social interaction these days. They usually spent a long time in their rooms each day, stitching and measuring, looking up references and figuring out more ways to do their tasks. Both were dedicated to getting the costumes done in as short a manner as possible.

That meant the only two people that she had to talk to were Katsuki and Todoroki… Neither of which were particularly gifted conversationalists. Katsuki just seemed to get angry at everything, no matter how trivial, while Todoroki, he tried, but he tripped up a lot. As it turned out, he was actually fairly awkward, so conversations barely lasted five minutes on a good day. While Mina may have liked to have a proper conversation with the brown haired girl, she'd made it pretty clear that she felt that work was more important. Izuku was the same way, asking politely not to be disturbed unless it was absolutely urgent, so as much as Mina wanted to, she couldn't find it in herself to bother him. In the same way, she did feel guilty about disrupting Uraraka's work…

But she was the one of the two who probably had the answer to the question that the pink skinned girl was looking for. And of the two, Mina felt less bad about disrupting Uraraka, since she was far more social than Izuku tended to be.

In that vein, the Zero Gravity Quirk user put down the costume she was working on, belonging to Katsuki, and spun around in her chair to look towards the Acid Quirk user, a welcoming smile on her face as she did so. "Sure thing, come on in."

Stepping in out of Uraraka's doorway, Mina shut the wooden door behind her, and slowly walked over to the brown eyed girl's bed, where she sat upon, noticing a lack of chairs for use in the very simple and plain room. Unlike her, Uraraka apparently didn't seem to be particular interested in a large amount of customization, being pretty grateful for what she had given to her. She was a person who could survive off the necessities, not the comforts of living.

Why she chose to live that way, Mina had no real idea. Feeling curious, she decided to inquire as to the reason. "Hey… Why's your room so barren, anyway? I lived on the freakin' streets for a year and I've got more stuff than you do."

With a scratch of the back of the head, Uraraka smiled awkwardly. "Well… I didn't get thrown out like you did… But my family is still pretty poor. I came here to make life a little easier on them. I didn't really have much more at home, but I brought a lot of it over." She scanned her room, realizing the mess that it was in, before turning back to Mina. "As for why it's so bare... It's kind of a solidarity thing."

"You've lost me."

"Well…. Most Quirked people don't have a lot these days, do they? A lot of them don't even have families… And so many have to live with barely any possessions…" The girl said sadly, looking down to her floor as she spoke. "I'm pretty lucky like that… So, I decided to live pretty lightly, just to experience what life is really like when you don't have a lot of comfort items. I mean, I know I still have a bed and warm meals at the end of the day, but… It just helps to put some things into perspective, you know? I mean, I know it's gotta look like a castle compared to what you lived in… But it just helps a bit to remind me how lucky I am that I didn't end up on the streets…"

The black eyed girl nodded as the rosy cheeked one spoke, understanding the logic that Uraraka was using. "I get it. It's kind of like saying, 'I'm making my life that bit more difficult so I can understand and empathise with you a bit better', right?" She questioned her friend. When her friend nodded at her in response to her assessment, Mina offered her a small smile. "It's a nice sentiment."

With a small blush at the compliment on her cheeks, Uraraka returned the conversation to the topic at hand, of which she had no idea what it was yet. "Was that your question?"

Shaking her head suddenly, Mina denied this. "No, not even close."

"What's up then?"

Biting her thumb lightly, the horned girl internally debated if asking this particular question, wondering if she was prying too much into the pasts of her friends. She knew that she wasn't the sort of person who liked talking about her family, so perhaps there was a certain level of hypocrisy in her wanting to know about the pasts of her friends. Things that Uraraka and Katsuki in particular did were of note to the Acid Quirk user, and were things that she had been curious about for months, ever since she'd first met all of them. They were things that she never really understood about the group, and how they all interacted.

Things that she wanted to know, and wasn't sure how to ask. Katsuki didn't seem like the type who was prepared to just sit down and explain all of this clearly. He never seemed like the sort of person who liked it when the past was brought up. He hated it, wanting to move forward and not look back and the things that had happened to him beforehand. Given what little she knew about Katsuki's parents and family life, she didn't blame him. Outed the way he was, and then disowned like that, it was amazing that he even had any respect for Humanity left at all. Clearly he had enough respect for them to follow Izuku, but he certainly wasn't the sort of person to talk to about the days gone by.

Todoroki wouldn't be much help either. If for the more simple reason that Mina felt he didn't know, since he didn't indulge in the action.

Curiosity ended up driving Mina to dare to question.

"…Why do you and Katsuki call Midori 'Deku' ?"

It sounded so demeaning to say to a person. Such a flat and unappealing name to be called, even by the people that were supposed to be his friends. Even if it was just part of some kind of friendly banter, it felt like the boundaries were being pushed too far with it.

The word translated to 'Useless' or 'Someone who cannot achieve anything.'

If there was anything Izuku wasn't it was one of those two things. Both Katsuki and Uraraka referred to him as that though, and he seemed fine with it, though the name always had been a subject of curiosity for Mina. It just seemed derogatory to her, so it confused her as to why on Earth he was not only fine with it, but responded to it actively, like it was his second name.

Uraraka just laughed lightly to herself. Making a small fist, and placing it in front of her mouth in an attempt to hide her chuckling, to no avail whatsoever – Not the response that Mina had been expecting at all.

"That's all? It's kind of just a thing that Katsuki started before he got his Quirk."

"Wait, before?"

"Mhmm." Nodding, Uraraka continued to explain. "You know that both of them went to school together, right?" When Mina nodded herself, showing that she did know this, Uraraka indulged further. "Basically, the two of them grew up in the same neighbourhood. It's not exactly a great place, not for people who have Quirks anyway. A lot of anger towards them back there, and a lot towards those two for all their Quirked rescue work. Since they both grew up there, they made quite a few others friends who were their age at the time, and out of their friend group, Katsuki was the 'Leader' I guess you'd say. According to Deku, he was really good at, well, pretty much everything, while Deku kinda lagged behind, so they gave him that nickname. It did start out as a derogatory term, I guess, but it just kinda stuck. He got used to it, and they eased off of him when they all got older, at least when it came to teasing. This is just a guess, but I think when they all started to get old enough to understand what was happening in the world around them, and when Quirked people started showing up, they all felt a lot safer with their friends who they knew were all Quirkless. That is just a guess though… Anyway, that's when Katsuki's Quirk showed up."

The final sentence made Mina gulp. She remembered her own Quirk activating for the first time, and the horrible feelings that it brought with it, knowing that she wasn't entirely Human. Just hearing about someone's Quirk activating for the first time sent her memories that she tried to keep buried straight to the front of her head, making her relive the moment her own powers manifested. Katsuki, she thought, had it easier than she did though. His Quirk was incredibly easy to hide, while here's wasn't.

"Bare in mind I heard all of this from the two of them, but Deku says that Katsuki called him up and asked for his help, and he ran all across the city to help him. It's why he's so loyal to Deku, even back when he was Quirkless. It's because out of everyone in his life, Deku was the only person who would stand by him, Quirked or not."

"So… What's that have to do with him called Midori 'Deku'?"

"It's just a force of habit, I suppose. One that he never really got out of, but it doesn't mean that he thinks any less of him. In fact, I think it means he respects him more than if he just used his actual name. He actually stopped for a short while, just before they met me." The Zero Gravity Quirk user explained. As she did so, she bent down from het sat down position on her bed, and reached for what looked to be some sort of pad on the floor, and used her Quirk on it, making it float in the air, and onto her lap. "I met the pair of them about a year or so ago, back when I came to Tokyo to apply to attend Yuuei classes, and figure out when I could earliest move into the dorms. Tokyo's… A lot different to where I'm from. People in my home town generally knew I was Quirked, but aside from a few jerks yelling stuff at me every couple of days, I was generally okay. I kind of got into the habit of not wearing any gloves to hide my finger pads, since everyone knew what I was anyway…"

That was a point that Mina was able to empathise with, to a degree, understanding the struggle of hiding atheistic adaptations due to her Quirk. Uraraka had it a hell of a lot easier than she had, but all it took was a single slip up, and she would have been in trouble, especially in a very anti-Quirked city like Tokyo, where racism and xenophobia was easy to breed.

"I didn't realize just how bad things were in the capital… I was just walking down the streets, looking for the location of Yuuei on the map on my phone. A group of people saw me and…" The brown haired girl shuddered at her memories, disliking revisiting them. Whenever forced to remember her time in the city, she always did tend to feel uncomfortable. "I… Experienced abuse because of my Quirked status for the first time that day. I hadn't done anything other than just walk, but all of a sudden, a huge group of men were taking it in turns to punch me to the ground or throw me against a wall…. But that's when Deku and Katsuki showed up, screaming and swearing at the top of their lungs. Katsuki was using his Quirk to chase people off. It was like something straight out of a comic book, y'know?"

"They did something similar when they first met me."

"When I talked to the two of them, Midoriya introduced himself as Izuku Midoriya, but said that his friends called him Deku When I asked why, he said that it was a nickname that Katsuki had given him when they were kids. Thing is, I actually like the name."

"Why?"

"I dunno, it just has this weird 'You can do it' vibe to it. I don't know, I just liked the word is all, so I said I thought like it'd sound like a cool name for a superhero. So, since then, I've been calling him Deku as well, and Katsuki started calling him that again, out of respect if I had to guess." Finished the cheery girl, giving a cheery smile as she wrapped up her explanation. "I think Deku's grown a lot fonder of the name too, since I met him."

Due to her general lack of knowledge regarding the two boy's lives before she showed up, Mina had no idea about any of this information. Limited knowledge about their situation was, by and large, something that she had grown used to though. Little by little, she was piecing together their past, and the things they'd done. She knew the story of how Katsuki and Izuku first formed a plan to hide the formers Quirk, their living together, the rescue of Todoroki, and now, the origin of the nickname Deku, and how they met Uraraka.

In spite of this though, she didn't have any plans to start referring to Izuku as Deku, even if he liked the nickname. To her, it felt too impersonal, and she wasn't the biggest fan of the name herself. His actual name, or rather, her abbreviated version of it, was cuter, she thought, and felt a lot more fitting for the green eyed Quirked sympathiser. He showed no protest to her nickname for him either, so she decided that she would continue with it, until he said that he preferred to be referred to as something else.

"Wouldn't it have made more sense to ask Deku or Katsuki about this stuff though?" Questioned Uraraka, playing with the pad on her lap absently, tapping her fingers along the metal framework. "You wouldn't be hearing about it from a third party that way."

"Yeah, Bakugou isn't exactly great at conversations. Especially ones that involve talking about his past. As for Midori, I…. Didn't wanna bother him. He's been working so hard on the costumes the last couple days."

"But you'll bother me?"

Without anything to say in response, Mina just simply looked towards the floor, trying to hide the lilac that was making its way onto her cheeks with her hair. It worked, slightly, since her hair curled up onto her face, but it wasn't enough to totally hide the blush that had crawled onto her skin. She didn't have any particular redirections, excuses or anything else to say in response to this. She could lie, but it wasn't something that she particularly liked to do unless she felt there wasn't another option, and the consequences for not doing so would be absolutely disastrous. It wasn't something that she particularly liked to do, since it just felt immoral.

And more to the point, these were the first friends that she had ever made. To do anything like lying to them, any sort of betrayal of their trust… It wasn't something that she felt that she could do.

Not over a crush.

Better to say nothing than to lie in this case. Better to let her friends come to their own conclusions about her. Better to let them think that she was weird than for her to lie. At least, that was how Mina felt about doing such a thing. Some people in the world would see stretching or evading the truth as a victimless crime… But in the same world, abuse of Quirked people was seen by many as victimless crimes.

Even if it had no direct correlation, Mina didn't want to repeat the same sort of logic. Even if it didn't make any sense at all to anyone other than her, those were the reasons why she didn't say anything to deny the many implications that the Zero Gravity Quirk user no doubt was starting to pick up on.

There wasn't any reason for her be silent, after all.

"Oh, I get it." Uraraka commented kindly, patting the pink girl on her back with a soft smile designed to reassure her, but only served to make her blush all that bit more. Normally, Mina wasn't the sort to be shy under many circumstances, but this was one in which she did feel the embarrassment of being found out about. "You're pretty fond of Deku, huh?"

Her rapidly developed crush was something that, to outside people, had to seem ridiculous, right? She'd known Izuku for what, a month or two? Certainly not a particularly long time in the grand scheme of a lifetime. Essentially still a stranger to him and his group of friends compared to how long he'd known the rest of them, Mina still felt unsure how such feelings had managed to get their way into her system in the first place.

They'd shown up so quickly that she'd barely even noticed them at first, establishing themselves in such a short space of time that she almost associated them with the regular feeling she had towards Izuku. Like she'd always felt like this from when they first met.

She still remembered wanting, and trying, to kiss him, just only a week into their friendship, before they'd even set off for Yuuei. Over time, it seemed that, on the surface, the two had simply forgotten about it, but that wasn't the case. At least not for Mina, and she doubted that someone like Izuku was capable of forgetting something like that either. Instead, they had some sort of unspoken rule not to talk about it though… Was that a sign of his disinterest, or was there other factors at play there?...

Maybe things had just started happening so quickly that it had slipped his mind. Either that, or the boy was just as awkward about it as the girl was. She wanted to talk to him about it…But there never seemed to be a right moment to bring it up. So dedicated towards the betterment of the Quirked, Mina often felt bad for wanting to ask him if he wanted to get a drink together when he wasn't working. Fighting for Quirked rights was basically his life's work. His dream. Asking him to drop everything so that they could have a conversation about their near kiss… It just didn't seem right.

Not now. Not yet.

"Hey, don't look so down! It's not like it's something you have to be ashamed of!" Uraraka said, trying to make her friend feel better, feeling bad herself for unintentionally making Mina appear distressed. "You've been through a lot with him, it's just a natural thing!"

"I barely know the guy… Doesn't that seem a bit… I don't know…. Weird to you?" mina sighed. She hadn't known entirely what to expect when she came to Uraraka's room. Certainly not this though. This was the last thing that she had expected was to be comforted about her crush.

"Not really." The other girl replied simply. "Not like anyone gets to choose who they end up liking. It's not like there's such a thing as a soulmate, or in books where it's 'love at first sight' or something that happens over time. It just happens when it happens. It's random"

"How do you know?"

"I'm… Kind of in the same boat that you are. Just not with Deku."

Any particular embarrassment that Mina had seemed to evaporate when she heard this, and she finally managed to look at Uraraka once again, who's normally rosy cheeks were now just a hint redder than they normally otherwise were. Both of them were uncomfortable right now, which in turn, led to them feeling more at ease, since they knew that the other was just as uncomfortable as they were.

The two blinked at one another in silence for a couple seconds, not saying a word between them for the duration.

"…Seriously?" Mina questioned, raising her right eyebrow in curiosity. She wasn't sure where this interest into her friend's romantic life had come from, but interested she certainly was.

"Uh…. Yeah." Uraraka admitted, her cheeks getting a little brighter as she confessed.

"Who?"

"Promise not to tell?"

"If you don't tell about Midori, I won't."

"Uh… Katsuki."

"Bakugou?!" It almost made Mina want to laugh. Of everyone in the entire school, the last person that she expected Uraraka to have any sort of emotional attachment beyond friendship and kinship towards was to Katsuki. Uraraka was calm and cheery, while Katsuki always seemed to be one sentence away from blasting a hole through the nearest wall and shouting all manner of profanities towards every single Anti-Quirked person out there. "Seriously, Bakugou of all people?!"

"What?!"

"Isn't he just, like, constantly pissed off?" She shook her head quickly. "Sorry, sorry, I just – I wasn't expecting that."

"I mean… There's reasons for it." Uraraka said, looking down at the floor and intertwining her fingers as she did so. Mina quickly got the impression that she hadn't really talked to anyone about these feelings she had regarding Katsuki. "He's had such a rough life, and he's got every right to be angry at everything… I mean, he's still angry at all the Quirkless people out there, and he's got every right to be… But he… He's putting it aside. He's put it all aside because he wants to help make the world a better place for Quirked people, and for Quirkless people by extension. And…. It's a little more than that…" Apparently, the finger padded girl was just allowing the worlds to tumble out of her mouth, just as Mina often felt the urge to allow all her worries to fall out when she spoke. "When I first arrived in the city…. Deku and Katsuki saved me… And I didn't like Katsuki at first. I honestly didn't. You know what he's like, and he really rubbed me the wrong way back then… But I got where he was coming from. I hadn't seen any Quirked discrimination in action where I'd grown up, so I thought he was just being overzealous in how he acted towards the people who gave us odd glances… Yelling and swearing at people, I thought it was overkill."

It did honestly amaze Mina that Uraraka had lived so much of her life without having to deal with Anti-Quirked sentiment. So much of it existed everywhere the pink girl had gone – Although most of it might have had something to do with how obviously she stood out – Regardless, it had always been a prevalent theme throughout her life. A life without prejudice….

That was what they were going to become Heroes to try and make, anyway.

"But… When I actually got a chance to speak to him properly… He told me about all the horrible things that happened to him, and to the Quirked people he'd seen in his life. He even told me about the way Deku got treated because he sympathizes with Quirked people. Bullying, harassment… Some stores just refuse to serve him because he doesn't hide his support. And Katsuki's anger… All of its justified. Every single bit of it."

"…Mind if I ask what made you like him, then?" Mina questioned, showing intent interest as Uraraka spoke about her previous experiences with the group. It was rare that she got to learn about her friends from them, since as mentioned earlier, they tended to be tight lipped about their pasts a lot of the time.

This was stuff Uraraka knew though, so it was pretty much free game.

"I think… It was actually when he was talking about Deku." Uraraka stated, and laughed lightly at herself. "Yeah, it's a weird time to start to like someone, but it's true. He was talking about how he knows that Deku's a lot smarter than he is, and how much he respects him for standing by the Quirked when there's no obvious gain for him. It's… Honestly one of the few times I've seen him so openly and blatantly honest about something. He said that he'd be Deku's muscle, and that he'd fight for Quirked people wherever he could, for as long as he had to, and that he'd do things the way that Deku thought best, because he truly did believe in him."

"What made you like him there?"

"Just…. I saw how honest he was, and how much he meant what he said. He puts on a tough façade all the time, and he's got the will, and the Quirk to back it up… But he just…. He means it. He truly does mean it. He wants things to be better for Quirked people, and he will do whatever it takes… I just…" It seemed like Uraraka herself was struggling to remember the exact moment where she developed these feelings for him. "…He was different, I guess. I can't really say. It's just something that happened to me. There's just something there. I can't explain it."

Untraditional, and actually rather anti-climactic, Mina thought to herself. There wasn't a single realistic reason for Uraraka to find anything endearing about Katsuki, but it was just there, according to the brown haired girl. Like nothing out of a romance book, or anything from the movies, or how the media declared it would normally be. All perceptions of it were just…. Fake, quite frankly, and what they were left with was these feelings that just showed up out of nowhere, without rhyme or reason to it. Just like how things were for her and Izuku.

To be honest… It made Mina feel a lot better about her own crush. To know that she wasn't the only person who felt like they were drowning in a sea of uncertainty. To be able to be honest about these new feelings for someone she barely knew or understood…

It felt uplifting. Like a weight had been released from her chest and shoulders, and that she finally was able to breathe again. To know that she wasn't alone in this aspect was liberating. Uplifting almost.

"Hey, I won't tell if you don't." She said with a smile, patting her friend on the back, just as she had done for her not too long ago.

"Deal." Uraraka nodded with a smile of her own, before she stood up and stretched her arms, a series of clicks along her arms making themselves heard as she did so. "Since you're here, you can help me with Katsuki's costume. There's some orange thread underneath the bed you can get me."

* * *

"Hey, Kirishima, what exactly're you hoping to find there?" Kaminari questioned, his hands shoved into his black jacket. In his mouth was a USB port that went into a plug socket, leading towards his pocket, where his phone currently resided. Activating his Quirk just small a bit around his teeth, the electricity began to cackle from his teeth, he was able to charge up his phone without the need for a plug socket. He would have normally just charged it while in his room, but Kirishima had insisted that this was something he urgently needed help with.

A group of three, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Mineta, all made their way towards the other class dormitory, the building for Class 1B. They followed the main pathways, which were mostly deserted at this time of the day, since everyone was getting ready to relax and call it a day. Classes were over, and the darkness of night was just starting to take over the sky. The only people still around were the night owls, and those who had nocturnal Quirks, which was a very slim number. A few other groups were around, planning on staying out past curfew. Every school had its rebels, after all.

To the Electrification Quirk user and the Pop-Off Quirk user, Kirishima hadn't explained a thing, other than the fact that he needed some people to tag along with him, apparently as back up if things wound up going horrendously wrong at their sister class' dorm. It was filled up with people who were almost total strangers to everyone in 1A, so security was to be a key factor here. The possibility of being attacked wasn't something they could just rule out. With people abusing those who had Quirks for so long, it was a very real chance that someone had become paranoid and aggressive to any and all strangers that showed up, Quirked or Quirkless. Being negligent around people, even if they were fellow Quirked, was a bad move to make, for anyone within the school.

Not that Kirishima wasn't capable of looking after himself. To assume he couldn't was a huge fallacy. That being said, Kirishima genuinely wanted to avoid having to have a fight with other Quirked people. As was fitting with his philosophy and theory of Quirked people eventually ruling this world, fighting other people with Quirks was just a waste of both time and resources. What was needed right now was unity, not rivalry. Psychology was another reason for Kirishima's desire for his two compatriots to join him. The more people he could prove were on his side, the better his pitch would be.

"Doesn't look like anyone else is around…" Checking around him, Kirishima finally decided now was as good a time as any to explain. No one was around, within earshot, anyway. "Okay, so here's the deal. There's a student in 1B who hates the Quirkless as much as we do. We're basically going to recruit him into our plan to get rid of Midoriya."

The overall goal of Kirishima's goal for right now was so simple, it was obvious to anyone who knew that he still had it out for Midoriya, and that was to simply get rid of him from the school. Make the student body completely Quirked. Without having to worry about some Quirkless person spying on them or reporting on what they were doing or saying, they could start to formulate some sort of pan for when Yuuei terms ended and they were kicked back out onto the streets.

Maybe even plan a revolution if things didn't get better. He joked about it with the people who supported his anti-Midoriya plan, but he was serious. If that was what it was going to take to get some Quirked rights, he'd gladly start a revolt against the current Quirkless ran society.

"We're seriously going to 1B's dorm rooms just to get one person? And another guy too?" Mineta questioned, looking up at Kirishima with a mixture of confusion and outright frustration. "Kirishima, we need to be focusing on getting all the girls on our side, not just some random dude from 1B! We've already got plenty of guys!"

With a sigh that landed somewhere between amusement and irritation, Kirishima responded simple with, "I'm sure 1B has girls that you can try and ogle and harass all you like once Midoriya's gone." At this point, trying to stop Mineta from doing so was going to be like trying to stop a freight train. He was quickly losing the ability to care. "Besides, this person I have in mind is important. He could really help us out."

"How so?" The Electrification Quirk user asked.

Kirishima simply just grinned, showing off his razor sharp teeth. "You'll find out. Just trust me on this one."

As the conversation ended, the trio found themselves outside the dorm house for Class 1B. The building was, objectively, pretty much the exact same in design as their own dorm was, except for the giant '1B' sign on the side of the building. From one of the student's rooms, a big red banner was hanging out of the window, showing off some kind of sports team logo that the student evidentially supported. Several lights were on, and some noise could be heard due to an open window. On the whole, Class 1B tended to be less likely than 1A, but during the night, they could be rather social with one another, and it was clear just from standing outside their dorm right now.

On the whole, the classes barely ever interacted. No classes shared between the two, and no real interaction between them happened outside of those who dared try to be social with them during lunch and breaks, and outside of school hours. That limited those who knew a bunch of people outside of class to Hagakure, Ashido, Uraraka. Todoroki knew a lot of people here, since he'd been living in the dorms longer than pretty much anyone else. He'd had a whole lot of time to get to know people. As he was voted Dorm President, Iida knew a fair number of people outside the dorm, but he was firmly in camp, what Kirishima had nicknamed, peacemakers. Those who felt the best course of action would be to make peace with the Quirkless.

Then there was Kirishima. Out of everyone within his group, their leader was the only one who had gone out of his way to make some contacts outside their own dorm rooms. While his knowledge of those people was limited, he did at least have enough pull to get some people to take him seriously. It was a lot better than nothing.

And that something was about to pay off. If his plans went the way he wanted them to. How he expected them to.

The red haired boy approached the main door to the other class's dorm, both his followers at either side. As he approached, he could hear the sounds of some modern Japanese rock music being played on a stereo within the building. It wasn't a band anyone of the 1A students recognised, not that it particularly mattered. Voices could be heard from the other side of the door, in conversation with one another.

When the Hardening Quirk user knocked on the door three times, those voices became silent. For a few seconds, all noises from whoever was on the other side of the door stopped, the only sound from inside the building was the music. Anyone who resided within the dorms had a key to the main entrance, meaning that anyone who was knocking either didn't reside in that particular dormitory, or had forgotten or lost their keys. In the latter case, most people just called a friend and asked them to unlock the door for them. It was less hassle that way, and eliminated the need to knock. Now, when the door was knocked, it was solely because it was a stranger to the dorms wanted access.

Eventually, someone made their way over to the door, peeked through the viewing hole, and then proceeded to unlock the door. Opening it so those also within the corridor could see whom it was, the person who opened said door was revealed to be Itsuka Kendou, Class 1B's Class President.

And someone openly in favour of peaceful relationships with the Quirkless. Kirishima disliked her for this reason alone, but he kept this knowledge to himself, so as not to damage the relationships he had within Dorm 1B. "Kendou, sorry to bother you and your dorm mates so late." He spoke, putting on a façade of politeness to her.

"Kirishima?" The naturally red haired girl questioned, raising an eyebrow at his presence. The two were vague acquaintances, knowing one another by name. Outside of a few discussions regarding the state of society, they barely knew one another. "What's going on, why're you here?" Looking past the red haired boy, Itsuka noticed Mineta, whom seemed to be eying her up, a fact she certainly didn't appreciate, and Kaminari, whom looked like he was trying to appear cool for her, giving her a little finger gun with his left hand, from which a small spark of electricity crackled out of. "And who're these two… People?"

"I'm wanting to talk to Monoma. It's kind of important." Kirishima answered, deciding it best not to go into detail about his two allies at either of his sides. "Is he around?"

Blinking at his evasiveness, the female student shoved her hands into her pockets after flipping her side pony tail behind her shoulder. "I'm pretty sure he's in his room." Itsuka said, before turning around to one of the two people in the room with her. "Hey, Fukidashi, do you know if Monoma in his room?"

The student in question, Manga Fukidashi, turned his speech bubble head towards Itsuka. As he did so, he gave her a thumbs up, and within his literally blank head, the words, 'Yeah, he's up there.' appeared, written in kanji clearly for all to see. It was a common form of communication for the Comic Quirk user that didn't require verbal response.

"Yeah, he's here." Itsuka relayed to the three 1A students. Her green eyes once more shot between the three of them, trying to guess what it was that they wanted with her classmate. Fundamentally, because of what she knew about Kirishima and his attitudes, she was suspicious of him and the actions that he took.

For Monoma to be implicated in Kirishima's business…. It felt off. Worrying. But it wasn't like she had any right to butt in, since she had no other proof aside from her suspicions.

"Mind if we go up and talk to him?"

"By school rules I shouldn't…" The Class President said warily, remembering that, as a Class President, she had been told that allowing other students from outside the dorms to enter was a breach of the rules. However, letting their fellow students know that someone was wanting to speak to them outside the dorms was perfectly acceptable. It was a very odd rule, she felt, but one that she had to obey. Once again, because she had no evidence to suggest that they were up to something, and could probably hound Monoma for details if something was going on when he returned, she offered, "I can call him down for you if you like."

"That'll work. We won't need him for long."

With that, Itsuka left the three students alone, shutting the door as she left them, and heading towards her classmates dorm room. She locked the door behind her, since she didn't want to risk them entering without express permission. The fact that she obeyed the rules presented to her like that irritated Kirishima just as much as the fact that she was open to negotiations with the Quirkless after everything hat had been done to the Quirked, but at least she was getting Monoma for them.

He let out a sigh. "Damn peacekeepers." He quietly muttered.

"Damn dude, she was cute, huh?" Kaminari commented behind Kirishima, folding his arms and grinning to himself. Girl crazed as Mineta was, only to a less psychotic and shamelessly perverse degree. "You reckon she's got a boyfriend or a girlfriend? She can't, right? No one here really knows anyone else enough for that yet."

"There's an entire buffet of girls in there… I'm calling dibs." Drooled the Pop-Off Quirk user, literally salivating at the mouth as he spoke.

"You don't just call dibs on a person!"

"I just did!"

"Knock it off." Kirishima ordered, turning around to the two of them, and activating his Hardening Quirk around his face, causing cracks and bumps to appear within his skin. At this point, it was like a commanding cry whenever he did this with his Quirk. A show of intimidation and a demand to focus back on the task at hand.

While he did appreciate both Mineta and Kaminari coming out of their way to help him out here on such short notice, and merely for the fact that they were supporting him throughout his entire plan to get rid of Midoriya. With his plan, and what it entailed, and the implications of it, the risk and the possible repercussions, he couldn't appreciate their willingness to take these risks more. That being said though, that didn't change the fact that both of them were behaving like children when there was still work to be done.

If they wanted to succeed, they needed to be on alert at all times. Once Midoriya was gone, they could relax, but not until. There was no telling who was around, listening in on them right now.

Suddenly, making all three of them jump lightly, the door lock began to clunk open, and said wooden door began to open slowly. From the gap in the door, a blonde haired boy poked his head out, and upon seeing who exactly was stood out there, he stepped outside of his dorm building, and closed the door behind him. This boy was Neito Monoma. And if Kirishima had his way, he'd play a large role in his plan.

"Kirishima?" Monoma questioned, narrowing his eyes at the Hardening Quirk user. "What're you doing here?"

Glancing left and right, the sharp toothed boy made sure that no one else was within earshot. The windows to the dorm house were all shut, thankfully, and none of the other wondering students were nearby. They still had an hour before the curfew officially started, and security guards began to patrol the grounds.

"Kaminari, Mineta, keep an eye out around us. If someone gets close to us, let us know, or keep them away from here."

Both teenagers nodded, and followed their given orders, taking a couple of steps away from the two of them to get a better view around them. Kaminari leaned on one of the walls, while Mineta took a seat on the steps leading up to the door. Each position covered the majority of the area, and it made them look like they were just loitering. Both were still within earshot, so they heard as Kirishima began his questioning.

"Monoma, remind me, what's your Quirk again?"

* * *

When Mina was finally presented with the Hero costume that Izuku and Uraraka had wound up co-operatively working on together, she was slightly taken aback at what exactly she was looking at. Not that she was in any way ungrateful – Quite the opposite. Her thanks for their efforts and the lengths they had gone to create this design was astounding. How Izuku managed to even find a fabric that was this resistant to her Acid was beyond her. The fact he'd gone to such lengths to make her a costume after he'd listened to her emotion fuelled rants just a few nights ago just further established the respect that she felt for him as a person, that he'd go to these lengths. Of course she was thankful for the costume. It could be jeans and a t-shit and she'd be swelling up with tears at the sentiment.

But… Well…

If she was going to be frank – And she was, at least in her head - It looked like an absolute mess. Cluttered was the only word that Mina could honestly use to describe it. Separated into four major parts, two of which were fairly small, it looked more like some sort of unfinished middle school science project than anything practical for someone who used Acid as a weapon. Then again, not a lot of middle schoolers dealt with people who had Quirks.

It was all consistent, not to get her wrong. It fitted the pattern and overall design she had asked for. It was just that, changes had obviously been made to suit her preferences, plus just things that needed to be added for practicality reasons. It was just that a lot of those practical changes made little to no sense for Mina, looking at it right now.

With explanation, perhaps this mess would make a lot more sense.

A lot of explanation, that was.

Uraraka was busy dusting down the outfit, while Izuku was the one actually showing off the design to Mina, who was just stood there, mouth ajar, hoping that they'd eventually just tell her what on earth they were thinking. "I uh, guess that I'll show you some of the design choices we made." He decided, scratching the back of his head in nervous worry that his friend disliked the job that they had done.

"Okay…" Mina nodded slowly, and equally slowly, she looked at the costume from a variety of angles as she walked around it, inspecting each and every little detail that the pair of them had put on. Again, she didn't hate the costume. Not in any way. She was more just confused by the haphazard design that it seemed to emit.

The first thing that she noticed was a set of ski-goggles, which would be used to cover her obvious giveaway black eyes. That was psychology. Whenever faced with someone new, or when in fear, the natural response was to look for the eyes of whatever was in question. Humans just did it naturally, and with eyes like the ones Mina had, it was just as much of a giveaway as her horns, so naturally, they needed to be hidden. That part made sense, and frankly she herself was surprised that she hadn't come up with that simple solution. On the framework of the goggles was the acid proof pattern that made up the majority of her costume, designed to stop the goggles from breaking whenever she used her Quirk. That aside, they were imported from a well-known and credible brand from Switzerland, and sold throughout all of Japan, so they were likely durable and effective at their function anyway, and they wouldn't be able to trace it to the Yuuei students.

She noticed this first, somehow, because that was the only part of her costume that she actually understood.

"The goggles are obviously to help conceal your eyes, since they're kind of a giveaway." Izuku went over, picking up the ski goggles himself as he explained their purpose. Holding them out for Mina, he explained a small bit of trivia to her that he hoped would reassure her of her safety. "I actually went to another town and bought these, just so it'd be harder for them to be traced to us."

"What about the laws that stop Yuuei students from leaving Tokyo?" Mina asked, taking the goggled into her own hands and inspecting them. That had a very slight black tint on the inside looking out, but they weren't that bad. The primary focus of these goggles was to prevent sunlight from hitting the eyes, and for that, most of the reflective tint was on the outer layer.

The thing Mina wanted to know was how he'd gotten these from another town. Laws regarding quirked students at Yuuei was very specific – They weren't allowed outside the city under any circumstances whatsoever unless directly ordered to do so by government officials. To do so required a pass, and an extraordinarily good reason for leaving the city. Not even the death of a family relative was enough to get a pass out of the city. That was how strict control of Quirked individuals was.

"O-Oh, I just - Ow!"

Patting Izuku on his back with a loud smack, Uraraka jumped up from behind the black haired boy with a smile. "Deku got me and Bakugou to cover for him while he snuck outta the city! Bakugou can do a pretty good impression of Deku, so he pretended to be sick while I said I'd look after him. We just spent the time designing the costume's look!"

"U-Uraraka!"

"What're you hiding it for, anyway? Why wouldn't you want her to know?"

"Wait wait wait, hold up, you said you actually left Tokyo just to get these?!" The horned girl stopped and looked at Izuku with equal parts surprise and terror adamant in her eyes, it just clicking as to what he'd just said to her! She'd been a bit too distracted by the varied colours of her costume, and the equipment in her hands, but now that she was able to process the information given to her, it made her blood run cold in panic. He'd gone that far for a ski mask?! "How – And why – And – And – How did you even do that?!"

Tints of red sprouted up across Izuku's cheeks and he scratched his right forearm with his left hand. "I just sorta… Covered my face and got on one of the trains to Kamakura. I don't stand out as much as anyone else in Yuuei, so no one really paid attention to me. And I was born Quirkless, remember? The Toe Test doesn't tell them that I have a Quirk. I guess that they didn't feel the need to search the database since I didn't set off any alarms. A-anyway… Uraraka and Kacchan covered for me, so no one knew that I was gone. Snuck back in at night time… Used my Quirk to jump the wall when there were no guards around the place"

 _How_ he'd done it made sense, Mina supposed, though she was still amazed that he'd managed to get away with it. Usually security going in and out was very tight, especially with the guards searching for people with Quirks. When she first entered the city, she'd had to avoid armed police by sitting in a garbage can in a back alley for four hours until they left for the day.

The only question that remained was…

"What the heck made you go that far for a pair of goggles?!"

"I-I thought it'd be harder to link to us. None of the shop owners in Tokyo could point me out as a person who bought a ski mask around the same time a Hero with dissolving powers showed up."

Extreme was a word that was accurate in this context. Little else would come close. An extreme dedication to keeping their identities a secret, to self-assurance, and to maximum deniability… She had to give it to them there – No matter how absolutely crazy… But Mina would concede that the logic there was very good. The less links there were to them, the better. Yet she still had her fears about her. If he was going that far just to get her something to hide her eyes… What the hell had he done to get the rest of everything else?

"You…. You didn't go anywhere else, did you?" For reasons beyond her understanding, it became vitally important for her to know just where Izuku had gone in order to prepare a costume for her. Why, she really didn't know. It kind of felt that, wherever he'd gone, Mina had gone too, and that her Hero had begun to grow as they went from place to place. Locations that were about to become important to her, that'd she'd look to and thank for helping bring the Hero she wanted to be to life.

Or perhaps it was paranoia. The more places Izuku went, the more likely it was that he'd get called out for being a Yuuei student. Their faces were well known, after all, published in papers and broadcast over various news networks around the country. People knew who they were. Izuku might be the plainest person in all of Yuuei…. But he still stood out. It was absolutely amazing that he managed to get out of the city and back in without getting caught.

And maybe it was just simple, intense curiosity.

With a shake of his head, however, her friend denied this claim. "I-I only went to one place to gather the materials for your costume, Ashido. Speaking of which… These boots, they're also from Kamakura." Izuku informed her, picking up one of them and showing it to the pink girl. "I made sure that they were your size... Uraraka helped me out there. We put some holes in the bottom of them so you can eject your Quirk through them when you have to. It's all covered in acid-proof material, so you're gonna be okay to use your Quirk like that." He attempted to show a smile to the obviously startled girl, but it came across far more wavy and weak, showing the nervousness that he felt. "I-It's an option for you. I uh… I don't know."

Her costume. He had been quick to carry on the conversation, move away from a topic he pretty clearly wasn't too fond of being on. He wanted to hide something about his trips. Mina noticed how to tell if someone was lying fairly easily, and could even tell how desperate they were to keep that lie going. Izuku's tells showed her that he simply didn't want anyone to worry about him.

But it told the pink haired girl that he had been around the place. Kamakura, Takayama, Beppu, Hiraizumi, and Nikku…. Every one of them was on the list, only a few hours away by train. The choice of words, and his tells, how he sweated and moved to change the topic, how he nervously smiled and tried to put an object between her and him. He'd told a lie without telling a lie.

Kamakura was the only place he'd visited for _her_ costume. For everyone else's, he'd travelled elsewhere. Probably for the same reasons…

She did have to question his sanity…. Though she did respect his dedication.

The costume itself was a skin-tight body suit that Uraraka assured Izuku and Mina both, met all of the pink girl's measurements. The body suit itself had two layers to it – One was what Izuku called the comfort layer, and the other was the aesthetic layer. The comfortable fabric was underneath, covered up by the acid proof fabric gifted to him by Yaoyorozu and Kirishima. Multiple tests confirmed that the fabric was indeed durable against attacks and Mina's own Quirk solidified their confidence in using the materials. The comfort layer also had multiple strands sewed in-between it, to help increase the strength of the layer that its owner would be right against whenever she wore it.

Around the chest area was a tan, sleeveless jacket that didn't close from the front, which connected the entire costume together, where all points would meet. It was lined with pockets, for various miscellaneous items that she may need on the field. Adding on to that, at the back of the jacket, was a large hood that was made of white fur, which would easily cover Mina's head, hair and horns. A few straps were set up on the inside, for reasons unknown as of right now.

There was also a bandana, that Mina only noticed when she went right up and looked at the costume, and saw something that was folded up next to it. The bandana's purpose would be to cover up her face, so that no one would be able to see her unique pink skin.

What was most bizarre about her entire costume though was the sleeves. They were about a forearm's length too long for her, but they had long, vertical striped segments on them that reached up to her wrist. They dangled down to just above the ground, just level with her ankles. It concealed her hands… But Mina had no idea what the heck the design was behind it, aside from that.

Izuku cleared his throat, and then began. "Right, okay… The sleeves, you see how they're kind of sliced up like this, like ribbons?" When Mina nodded, Izuku held up two strands, and pulled them apart, to show a gap between them. "Those're there to help you use your Quirk freely. We tried thinking up some ways that would let you secrete your Acid from your hands, and figured that this is probably one of the most convincing ways to hide your hands. And that's just an added measure too." From inside one of the side pockets of the costume, Izuku pulled out a set of gloves, still with the same pattern and theme to them. "These're Acid Proof gloves, but they have larger holes in between each seem, which means you should be able to eject some of your Acid out of them. They might need some retooling, but once we get this design right, and check it out when you're using it, we might be able to get rid of the ribbons on your costume. For right now though, it's safer if you keep them on."

"Obviously, we did our best to make sure the entire costume was Acid Proof." Uraraka explained. "But this is still a material that we need more information on, so just be careful with it. We'll need to test it before you actually go out in it."

Talking exclusively about the fashion side of things, it was actually just the kind of style that Mina liked. She had handed in her actual request to Uraraka and a vague drawing of what she was looking for in terms of aesthetics, and it seemed to have gotten the general idea across. Lilac coloured camouflage patterns against a light blue jumpsuit that covered up the vast majority of her skin, aside from the aforementioned areas, for reasons of practicality. It was something that stood out, but didn't give who she was away. The design was good. She liked it.

Loved it.

Upon looking at it closer, she couldn't help but admit that she truly did admire the work that went into it, even if her initial impressions had been justifiable confusion and uncertainty. The more she inspected it, the more her worries subsided in place of a smile, which grew and grew more and more as she looked upon the costume that she had just been gifted.

Truthfully, it was more that fact.

That she'd been given this by friends, because they wanted to help her do something that she wanted to do. That they cared about her this much. That they actually went out of their way to help... And that they'd taken such care with this costume, because they wanted her to like this. That they'd taken such risks to be able to make this thing for her... Ever since she was young, after the hacksaw-to-the-horn, Acid-to-the-face incident with her family, she had learned quickly to be independent. To look after herself, feed herself with what scraps she could find, and how to hold her ground when she was yelled at for having the audacity to take food not designated to her. She'd spent her whole life on guard after that, already on the ready, on the defensive, ready to do or say whatever it took to get through the day. Not once had she been given something, offered something, not out of lawful obligation to do so...

Because they cared.

Actually cared. Enough to help her try to do what she wanted to do.

Enough to try to help her be a Hero.

"Both of you..."

To help her try to do this... Ridiculous thing...

"Thank you... Midoriya... Uraraka..."

"To be honest, Deku's the one who designed and made a lot of the trickier stuff." The Zero Gravity Quirk user admitted with a smile of what looked like meek embarrassment for praise she felt she didn't deserve. "I just stitched everything together." Shooting a look over to the black haired holder of One For All, who desperately was trying to make her stop, with frantic arm waves and gestures to try and get the brunette to cease. None of them worked. "I think he's just embarrassed to take credit. Don't listen to him, Ashido, he did most of the work with this one."

Humble in the things he did, Uraraka knew for certain that this was what was making Izuku unwilling to admit his part in the creation of the outfit. Praise quickly turned him into a flustered mess, particularly when it came to his creative skills. The green eyed boys stammer came back, in particular full force, hampering all of the words he was trying to say. "I-I - Y-You d-did all the h-hard work with it. I-I just put some stuff together. I-I didn't do a-anything impressive a-at all!"

"Oh, c'mon, Deku!" With a bright and cheery smile, the brown eyed girl insisted, determined for him to actually get at least some of the recognition that he very well deserved, from this one girl. "I wouldn't've been able to create this without you, and you know it! You're way better at this sort of thing than I am!"

"Thank you both..."

"I- You - You're the one who did the most w-work on it!"

"So? You did the best work."

"Thank you so... So much..." Between the back and forth between Uraraka and Izuku, Mina repeated herself, over and over, until she finally caught both of their attention. If she'd heard a single thing that either of them had said, neither of them had even the first clue. She was just stood there, her forehead resting against the fabric of the body suit's sleeve.

Sniffles were finally heard once silence fell. Water leaking from her eyes and onto the poorer girls bed sheet sand her new costume... She was holding back from making noise, though it only highlighted the raw emotion that the young girl had to hide every day of her life, for so, so long. A part of her had always been scared of what could happen if Izuku and Katsuki just decided that they wanted nothing to do with her anymore. If they threw her out of the flat they lived in. If Inko had hated her and thrown her onto the streets. If her dorm mates showed an equal amount of distaste for her due to her huge levels of mutation. They had always been irrational... But they'd been there.

The costume... It was essential, yet simple a gesture all the same. Handmade... Practical... Exactly what she'd asked for... And not because someone wanted something back from her... It was just pure kindness... And to her, it was just proof that Izuku and Katsuki weren't just one offs. That Uraraka and Todoroki might not just be pretending to like her, but that they actually did care...

All of it had just come from nowhere. She couldn't even explain it herself... Where all those thoughts came from... But the effect they had on her...

Mina was crying.

Pure tears of joy, gratitude... Thankfulness...

But above all... She tried tears of hope, that this would be her life in the future. One that was just like this, forever. With people, Quirkless or Quirked, who just showed her and those around her this kindness. The kindness that she had never gotten as a child. The kindness that had brought her to literal hot, soaked tears right now. The kindness that had made her feelings for Izuku develop into what they were now... It was all she wanted.

And now, because of the kindness these friends had shown her... She could start to help make that a world in which she and they lived in.

"A-Ashido?!" Izuku stammered, looking at her now and noticing the tears in her eyes. "A-Are you alright?!"

"I-I'm fine… Thank you…. So much…"

* * *

 **It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm very sorry about the wait, but since my girlfriend has left and gone back to Canada, I'll be able to work right back on schedule as normal. This took a while to figure out too, since I needed to get back into the swing of First Generation.**

 **Regarding Katsuki and Uraraka, honestly, while I do ship the two of them, I can't think of any particular reason why Uraraka would fall for him – To me, it would just be something that happened, like most romances I've personally been a part of. It's never instant, and you don't really choose what or when or how you end up liking someone, and since this story is primarily Mina and Izuku focused, while they're going to have prominence, I don't think I'll be delving into their backstory too much. That's how I see the two of them happening.**

 **With Katsuki, it is another story, but those would be spoilers. But also, heads up, he is a bitch to write romance for, since he's just so fucking ANGRY all the time.**

 **In any case, I hope you're looking forward to the next chapters like I am. Maybe next time, we'll finally see some Heroing! Or the chapter after that, perhaps. Who knows! Mwuhahahaha!**

 **Yeah, I'm in a good mood. Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time!**


	14. Trauma's Surface

Midnight, no one else awake but Izuku and Mina both. Past curfew, but they knew the routes that the guards took to check for anyone who was out. They stuck to a routine, always going down the same routes and paths at the same times. They patrolled the school like it were a museum, or a place of wealth, sticking to routine times. It made them surprisingly easy to avoid, due to their predictability. Maybe those times worked when it was in a place that had to be broken into to steal the valuables, but when it was noticed by a great many students who lived on campus, the idea fell flat on its face.

With this all in mind, Izuku and Mina quickly made their way over towards the training rooms, Mina's crafted costume tucked underneath her arm. They moved carefully, within the shadows, and behind whatever they could get behind. If they were spotted, it was going to result in a huge amount of problems for the two of them. Of course, Toshinori could always just bail them out, but if it happened one too many times, things would start to get suspicious.

Not to mention, they hadn't even explained the plan to Izuku's tutor… There was no way to tell how he'd react to the plan. He could be on board… Or he could shut it down entirely.

Hence why Izuku hadn't mentioned anything to him yet. If on the off chance, Toshinori hated the idea… Then Izuku wanted them to have at least done one good thing as Heroes. Given the world at least one taste of what it was like to see people with Quirks doing something good. Protecting the Quirkless form the increasingly common rampages by angry Quirked people who had nothing to lose.

If they could at least inspire others to follow suit, to become Heroes in their own rights… Then they would have done something to help end the oppression of Quirks. It wasn't a likely scenario… But it was one that Izuku was determined to give his all to. That was why, all risk aside, he was going to go through with this plan, even if his tutor didn't want him to.

But he needed to at least do this one thing while he could.

And to better do that, Mina needed to make sure that her costume was ready and prepared. The durability of the material that Yaoyorozu had made needed to be confirmed. Now that the costume was ready, going over it with stronger, more acid proof materials wouldn't be that big an issue. There couldn't be too few precautions when it came to Mina. One slip up, one show of skin, and it could totally screw everything up and expose them as Yuuei students.

There couldn't be any room for failure, no chance for the plan to backfire in their faces. They had to be sure, beyond any doubt whatsoever.

Which was why they were even taking this risk in the first place. To make sure that, when they went out for the first time, Mina would be totally safe. That any chance of her giving them away due to carelessness, to injury, or to her costume simply not being able to withstand the effects of her Quirk was gone. It had to be failsafe.

Doing this in their rooms was also a no go. If something did go wrong, Mina's Acid could burn a hole straight through the floor. Even disregarding the structural damage that this could cause, which, in a worst case scenario, could totally cause the floor to collapse underneath her, use of Quirks was forbidden in the dorms. No one really paid this rule any particular mind, but they were all careful not to leave evidence of their Quirks use. A few eroded holes around Mina's room would give away her usage, and lead to a swift punishment.

The only safe way to do this was to use the practice rooms.

Poking his head around the corner to the practice rooms to make sure no guards were on the patrol patterns, Izuku confirmed that the coast was clear, and the two of them quickly, and quietly, ran to their chosen room, which had the broken camera inside it. That way, they wouldn't be tracked. No one would ever know they used the room.

"Come on." He quietly hissed towards Mina underneath his breath, holding the door open for her. The longer that they were out in the open like this, the less at ease he felt. While he knew that, if the guards patterns that they had monitored were anything to be trusted, they were safe, he still felt vulnerable when out of cover. Like they could be caught at any moment.

The pink girl hurried into the room, and Izuku followed, closing the door behind him. He let out a breath that he hadn't even known he'd been holing, knowing that now, they were safe, and that no guards would bother the check inside the training rooms unless they heard a large amount of noise from inside one. For a few seconds, the two were in total darkness, until Izuku felt at the wall, and, once he found the light switch, flipped it on. A few seconds later, a series of lights on the roof began to illuminate the room, revealing all the cracks and rubble from when Katsuki had been training in the room with the One For All inheritor.

None of the five students there had thought it would be a good idea to tell Ishiyama-sensei about the room. If they did, there was always a chance that he would notice the broken camera, and order it replaced, eliminating a free place for the students to train without people noticing their growing strength, and linking it to the Heroes who were about to show up and take Tokyo by storm.

Letting out a small sigh herself, Mina looked up and grinned at Izuku. "Stealth mission, success."

Smiling lightly back at her, Izuku decided that the less time they spent out of their dorm, the better. "We'd better hurry this up, before anyone notices that we're gone. Get into your costume."

"I'm pretty sure Todoroki and Bakugou can cover for us for as long as we need." Still, the Acid Quirk user agreed that the less time they spent here, the better. "Yeah, you can turn around any time now." She joked, a bigger smile making its way onto her face.

Izuku's face quickly turned a shade of red that far surpassed his friend's natural skin tone, and turned around immediately. "S-Sorry." He apologized, covering his eyes for extra added measure and certainty that he definitely wouldn't be able to steal a peek, even if he tried to.

Not that Mina didn't trust him. He wasn't even close to someone like Mineta. Teasing him was just a fun thing to do.

Ever since she had talked to Uraraka regarding her feelings towards the black haired boy, she had found herself feeling a lot more jovial around him, and around other people in general. Without having to bottle up those emotions any longer, she felt like she no longer had anything to hide or keep secret. Just the liberation of letting one person know had brought a lot of peace to Mina's mind.

So she was quite comfortable just making more jokes and being casual around him. She no longer felt the need to hide anything or be reserved anymore. Not that she was particularly good at that anyway.

Hurriedly, she changed from her casual nightwear into the Hero costume prepared for her, as quickly as she could. This wasn't the first time that she'd tried it on, having worn it previously to make sure all the measurements were correct. The costume was designed for her to be essentially naked when she wore it though, requiring only her to be in a bra and underwear to do so, which made sense, since if she used it while wearing clothes, not only would it be incredibly uncomfortable, any Acid that she used would simply destroy her clothes underneath the costume anyway. It was for this reason that Izuku looked away, to give her the privacy that she needed to feel comfortable while changing.

Once she was finished, she clapped her hands together. "Alright, Midori, I'm good."

Removing his hands from his eyes and turning around to see Mina's Hero costume, Izuku had to show off a big smile. The costume was perfect for her, in measurements, in fitness, and in terms of concealing her identity. With the hood over her horns, the ski mask over her eyes, and the bandana over her nose and mouth, and the ribbons around her arms, she wasn't showing off a single bit of pink skin, or any other Quirked abnormalities or mutations.

The costume even offered support for her chest. The sheer number of back pains that Mina received from having to lug around the pair of fleshy fat bags…. She felt like she had Uraraka to thank for that particular addition.

"Perfect!" Izuku couldn't help but say as he grinned. "If I didn't know it was you under there, I wouldn't be able to guess that someone with pink skin and horns was hiding in plain sight."

"Could have used with something like this when I was travelling." Mina said, removing the ski goggles from her eyes so she could see better, the bandana from her nose and mouth to better speak and breath, looking at the long ribbons that dangled from her wrists as she did so. "Would have made hiding a lot easier."

Tilting his head and giving a more bemused smile towards his friend, he asked, "Wouldn't that make you hot during the day… And more suspicious? In fact, isn't that how you got into the mess me and Kacchan had to save you from?"

"They thought it was a burqa I had on." Mina corrected him. Then again, that particular religion was a very small minority, far smaller in number than the number of Quirked individuals, making it exceptionally rare in itself. "Or, that's what they said anyway. Still, it'd better than everyone looking at you like they want to murder you."

"How's it feel?"

Making her hands into fists, Mina grinned underneath her bandana, and her eyebrows burrowed downwards underneath her ski goggles. "Awesome. Comfy. I feel like a badass. So… How're we gonna go about testing things?"

Looking around, Izuku quickly made up a short testing regimen in his head. Three things had to be tested when it came to Mina's Quirk – That was durability, effectivity, and improvement.

Durability spoke for itself. How much Acid could the costume withstand, if any at all? Would it require constant maintenance, and trading in favours for materials with Yaoyorozu to do so?

Effectivity was how well that Mina's Quirk worked with the costume. Did it require her to adjust her aim? Did it mean she could fire off less Acid then she would normally secrete? Was it comfortable to run around and use her Quirk in?

Improvements would be based on the previous two factors. If one was weak and lacking, Izuku would take it on himself to improve the costume to better work.

Mina's Quirk was the only one that he had to do this much testing with. Katsuki's might be just as destructive, if not more so, but his design called for his arms entirely to be free, and Todoroki was doing the same thing. Since he was getting an idea for how to handle One For All, Izuku himself didn't need to worry about getting hold of hyper durable clothing, but instead could focus on making his costume practical and aesthetical.

Using his Quirk, Izuku jumped from one side of the room to the other, picking up big chunks of rubble, and bringing them back to the front of the room. Doing this several times, he moved about five large rocks into a line, with about a metre and a half spacing between them.

"Okay… That should do it, at least for until we see how much the ribbons affect accuracy…" He muttered under his breath, static electricity still crackling off of his body from his use of his powerful Quirks recently dubbed technique, Full Cowl. "Once we test out how the ribbons affect the use of your Quirk, we should then test to see if the gloves work any better. Depending on the results we should then be able to determine how good your costume is, from a practical standpoint, and see if there are improvements that need making. The best case scenario is that the ribbons don't bother your overall Quirks effectiveness, but that's what we made the gloves for, the worst case scenario. If the costume can at least withstand the strength of the acid…"

"You're muttering." Commented Mina, chuckling at the personality quirk of his. What he had planned here was fairly obvious, so she didn't feel the need to question it. "Lemme guess – Throw Acid at the rocks, see if I can throw in a straight line?"

There was a faint blush on Izuku's cheeks when he was caught in his ramblings, as there was every time that it happened. Years of doing it however, meant that he had somewhat grown used to it, and he was able to respond clearly and with a level tone of voice in spite of his fluster. "Yeah, that's the basic idea. Try from about… I'd say maybe ten paces."

Nodding at her friends instructions, Mina followed them exactly, running up to the rocks next to the Quirkless born boy, and then taking ten paces away from them. This wound up being about seven and a half meters away from her targets, which was a distance Mina was absolutely confident with, under normal circumstances. When she'd been forced to use her power to protect herself when she'd lived on her own, she'd developed a pretty good pair of throwing arms.

Minus the costume, anyway.

Jumping behind her with his Quirk, Izuku gave her a meters radius of free space, so she wouldn't accidentally hit him with her acid. That being said, he was cutting it close, getting as close as he possibly could that was both within a safe radius, and a good view of what was going to happen when the Acid and ribbons interacted with one another, in order to get the best information and detail on how the costume would affect the Quirk.

"Whenever you're ready, Ashido."

With that, Mina activated her Quirk within her costume for the first time, focusing on secreting corrosive liquid from her palms. Wearing gloves on top of her hands was a weird sensation to her. Normally, she was used to feeling her Acid within her palms, but in this costume, the Acid was, successfully, seeping through the fabric of the gloves, and resting atop them. That at least was a good sign, but Mina wasn't at all used to not being able to feel her Quirk on her skin in any way.

Another good sign was the fact that her costume was actually still intact – It hadn't faded and eroded like every other article of clothing that she wore! It was working, at least from a durability standpoint!

Now, she just had to test the accuracy of the costume.

Throwing her arm back like she were readying herself to pitch a baseball, she generated more Acid from her skin, and took aim with her free hand. Next came the pitch, as she threw the ball of Acid with as much force as she could muster.

The end results, however, weren't even close to being as satisfactory as the durability.

It wasn't exactly clear what had happened, other than the fact that her Acid had hit the costume's ribbons – Had it hit the edge, or barely even left her hand? Was it due to the gloves hitting the ribbons before Mina had even tossed her Quirk? Or was there some other factor? – But the end result was clear. All that came out of the costume's end was a splatter that pathetically exited the costume, dripping like melted chocolate come straight from a microwave at Mina's feet.

"Well…" Izuku said, voice void of any sort of emotion. "…That could have… Not gone any worse." Blinking at the sight of the Acid just lying on the floor in a gelatinous puddle, he wasn't quite sure what to say.

For the most part, it was a fairly smart idea of Mina's to use the least corrosive Acid that she could create without it being totally ineffective. It helped Izuku get a better idea of what he was working with, since he wasn't in a race to observe the remains before they destroyed whatever they were in contact with. Still, the mere sight of it was just something that left him speechless. He had expected a failure, if he was completely honest. Ribbons in the way of aim was bound not to work. It had been an experimental idea from the start, just for added security. He hadn't expected that though.

He then looked at Mina, and then to her costume. "So, the ribbons don't work. I guess we might as well just get rid of them."

"Yeah…" Mina nodded, walking towards him, and holding her arms out.

From the small cross-body bag that Izuku had brought with him, he produced a pair of scissors, sharpened at the blade. Quickly and carefully, he snipped off the shreds from the wrist, making sure not to accidentally cut Mina's flesh as he did so. The entire thing only too about two minutes, and once everything that wasn't required on her costume was gone, he packed up all the snipping and shoved them into his bag, along with the scissors.

In spite of their absolute terrible effectiveness for combat, the removal of those ribbons did actually have some negative connotations when it came to security. The gloves, yes, they allowed Acid to pass through them, but that wasn't to say that they were perfect. They could fall off. They could be destroyed. They could also be eroded over time. Possibilities did exist, and those possibilities, if they ever became realities, would leave Mina's skin colour exposed to the world. Thankfully, she had pockets on her costume that she could stuff them into if that were the case, but all it took was a second, or someone with a video camera to review footage of her, and they'd learn that the Corrosive Liquid Quirk user was someone with pink skin.

"Okay, there." Izuku said as he stuffed the final shred into his cross-bag. "I guess you're just gonna have to be really careful when it comes to your gloves. Tuck the sleeves of your costume underneath them, and it should give you some extra security."

"Gotcha." Mina nodded, following Izuku's suggestion immediately. "Hey, I have a question about the whole Hero thing."

"Go ahead."

"So… How do we do it?" Mina asked, now shifting her attention to Izuku after she had completed her task. "I mean… How do we announce that we exist to people? Do we just show up in the streets and declare that we're watching Tokyo from now on, or, what, do we just wait? How do we… Introduce ourselves?"

A question that Izuku was, honestly amazed that he hadn't been asked sooner. What was the idea time for Heroes to arrive on the scene? How did they show off the potential that they had in the least amount of time? What way would stand out to announce to the world that they were there?

The most effective method that Izuku could come up with was fighting away someone who had gone rouge and was rampaging with their Quirk. It was getting more and more common, as the number of Quirked slowly increased, and anti-Quirked sentiment quickly rose higher and higher. Recent studies estimated that one person out of every thousand people inside of Japan possessed a Quirk of some kind. With a population of over a hundred and twenty seven million, that wound up meaning that, if the estimates were correct, that a hundred and twenty seven thousand people in Japan were Quirked.

While that was a high number, to be sure, when compared to Japan as a nation, it wasn't a lot at all.

Furthermore, it was estimated that less than a single percentage of the entire world possessed a Quirk, based on similar numbers from other countries, including China, the United States, and Europe. Statistics that showed, parentage wise, similar ones to that of the Japanese consensus.

As it stood, Japan was a world leader when it came to researching the origins of Quirks, and if there was any 'Treatment' to them. Their attitudes towards Quirks, seeing them as dangerous people and terrorists waiting to happen, less than Human and monsters was also a global consensus. No nation on the planet held any particular regard for the Quirked. The only reason they even had basic Human rights was because of the fear of them. No one wanted to anger Quirked citizens. No one wanted to make people who had superpowers at the tips of their fingers angry with their governments. Not even an army would be able to stop a large group of angry Quirked.

Regardless of the numbers though, Quirked people still were a persecuted minority, although this did suggest something though, that was the subject of a lot of public debate.

The numbers of people who were manifesting Quirks were growing. The numbers of people who were born with Quirks, developing Quirks at young ages, and even older ages, was growing. What this meant was that people, who had often supported more laws and measures to make life more difficult for those who had Quirks, now had to reap what they had sown themselves when they developed a Quirk.

In many cases, this caused outrage to them. In many cases, these people then went on rampages against the cities, unleashing their powers in full until the police, after a long, drawn out conflict, usually involving either bullets or tranquiliser darts, took them down.

Not that every Quirked arrest was just. Many were arrested by officers who had total distaste for the Quirked for merely existing. And given the terrible state of the Japanese legal system… Barely any of them ever got out. Unless they used their Quirks to escape, and by that point, they really were criminals.

It was for these reasons that first impressions of Heroes, people using their Quirks to protect the innocent, and save the lives of those who had done no wrong, had to be impactful. It had to be effective. It had to catch everyone's eyes and ears. Hence Izuku's belief that the most effective way to catch headlines would be to stop someone wreaking havoc in Tokyo. In addition to it being snappy, the Japanese capital was the single most populous metropolitan area on the globe. Geographically, it was perfect. A huge number of people would see this new side to Quirks that they had never seen before. Word was sure to spread.

However, the question was, how did they align themselves with the next rampage?

Predicting when people with Quirks would go on a rampage was a pseudo-science at best. It just couldn't be done, due to the random nature of Quirks and who was born with them. Plus, since Quirks were beginning to manifest in people who were well past the age of four - Which in the most recent generations, if a person hadn't developed a Quirk by this age, they weren't going to. For older generations, the rules were still being explored. Why this was, no one really knew – It was totally impossible to guess who was going to go crazy with their new power next.

Did they just go on patrol, and wait until someone showed up? Did they risk getting caught before they had even done anything of value? Or did they wait until the media delivered news of more attacks by recently Quirked individuals?

To be honest, Izuku wasn't sure. If hiding their identities wasn't a problem at all, then patrolling would easily be the best option…

"…I don't know." He honestly admitted with a sigh. "I've been so wrapped up in thinking about the costumes and getting the hang of my own Quirk, I haven't really thought about how we'll begin operating."

"That's cool. I was just askin'." Mina dismissed, generating another pool of Acid within her hands. She was trying to get a feel for controlling her Quirk without the usual physical feedback.

"It needs to be flashy and eye catching." The black haired boy muttered to himself quite openly. "We need to show people that Quirks can be used for good. How do we do that and catch people's attention while making sure that everyone around us is safe?..."

"You'll figure it out." The pink skinned girl said with a bright smile. "You're smart. You always come up with cool ideas. We wouldn't even be doing this whole Super Hero thing if it wasn't for you."

The compliment cause Izuku to blush lightly, and to smile sheepishly. He scratched the back of his head in a timid, embarrassed fashion, while he looked down to the floor. "Um, thanks, Ashido."

"Mina."

"Huh?"

"Mina. My name's Mina." She kept smiling at him, but the feel this time was different. It was warmer, kinder, and more intimate than any previous one that she'd given him. "You've been calling me by my last name this entire time. By my family name. You know, the family that I… Am not exactly close with right now." Jokes still being used as a common method for the acidic to lighten the mood whenever she deemed it got too dreary, she made one at the expense of her family name, chuckling lightly in doing so. As she did so, a gloved finger absently twirled her curly hair from her cheek. "There never really seemed like a good time to bring it up again… But, if you don't mind… I want you to call me by my first name."

The curly haired boy felt his throat tighten up and go dry at this request of his friend's. Being the rather reserved person that he was, even when surrounded by the people he knew deeply and closely, he almost never referred to anyone by their first name. The only exception to this was Katsuki, someone Izuku had known his entire life, and had developed a strong friendship with throughout their childhood, and had spent years next to, trying to stem the tide of anti-Quirked mentality. Even then, he didn't do it often, only doing so in situations in which he felt it appropriate, or to simply enunciate a point he was making.

It wasn't something that he did on a regular basis. He was, by default far too polite an individual to do something like that.

Yet, Mina's justification for her desired name made absolutely perfect sense.

As she had explained to him before, her family had thrown her out when they no longer felt they would be held accountable should anything happen to her in the harsh, cold, uncaring wider world. She had suffered immensely, without home, shelter or companionship since. It made total sense that she'd want nothing to do with them in that regard. Referring to her by her family name would only serve to remind her of them.

At the same time…

"…Is there… Some reason you're only telling me this?" The green eyed boy asked, fidgeting with his fingers absently.

"Hm?"

"If this is something that bothers you…. Then why're you only telling me? Wouldn't it make more sense to tell everyone at once? Did you tell anyone else to refer to you by your first name?"

"Nope, just you."

Only when they were alone, had Mina finally decided to bring this up, and after a short costume experimentation lull. She'd not breathed a word of this to the others, but instead to him, and him alone. That was what had Izuku confused more than anything else, if he were perfectly honest.

Granted, he was fond of Mina. The pink girl was one of his closest friends, one of the few Quirked that he'd rescued who had decided to stick around. What was more, she was supportive, and even eager to help him in his provably unpopular dreams regarding the current society. Even though initially, she had been opposed to it, by her own admission, she had come around and was now trying to become a Hero alongside him in order to change this world for the better. She was a person who could see further than the end of her own nose, a trait that was becoming, sadly, more and more rare in the current climate. Willing to go to these extreme risks just to be able to offer her help when the time finally came. The dedication that she'd shown towards the concept of Heroism was one that rivalled Izuku's own.

His appreciation for that had no limits.

Excluding these facts about her though, as a person, she was one of the sweetest people that he'd met, even in spite of her dark past, and dreary life until just recently, fun loving, probably due to that same grim history, and empathetic and kind. She'd been in those horrible positions, and she knew what it was like to be an outcast. As such, she easily befriended those who were the same as her, and tried to extend that hand to those that weren't. When people rejected her, and posed danger towards her and her friends, she became a woman of action, someone who wasn't afraid to fight, to put themselves on the line, and use her Quirk to its full potential.

Underneath it all though… Izuku could sense the hate that she felt, underneath that entire façade of endless joy and happiness. The state of the world had affected her greatly, more than most others, due to her appearance, and the effects of her Quirk. Someone who had been rejected by nearly every single person that she'd ever met for these reasons, treated like she was on the same playing field as some kind of animal. Like she was a monster. And for the longest time, it caused her to hate everything around her…

Including herself. Behind that smile was someone who held a lot of self-loathing throughout their life, someone who had grown up, raised, and treated like they were worth nothing. That was the feeling that, even now, Mina almost certainly felt, deep down. It wasn't uncommon for people who had Quirks to hate themselves. Katsuki was another example…

But in spite of it, Mina pushed on. She was genuinely a person who knew that the current state of the world wasn't something that could continue this way, and she wanted to change it, and where she could, she enjoyed her life. She enjoyed it, in spite of the persecution and prejudice. She enjoyed it, in spite of the whole world trying to keep her knocked down and keep her contained.

These were all the things that Izuku admired about Mina. She was a person who, in spite of everything, in spite of the world hating her, and in spite of her hating herself, she chose to keep on fighting, to change the world. She hadn't given up on it yet.

Or on herself. She was an odd mix, one that combined the gritty, dark, depressing realities of the world, and one that still held out hope. In that sense, the light she shone was all the brighter if it managed to get through that darkness.

She was his friend. One of the closest friends he'd had since Katsuki, and without her, the group simply wouldn't be the same. She was new, compared to Uraraka and Todoroki, but she was already established as one of the most active members, and with here there, their conversations just felt that much more noticeably fun and optimistic. He valued her, and cared for her.

More than he was willing to admit.

But above all else, the main question was… "…Why just me, then?" He asked quietly, looking towards the pink girl, and making eye contact with her, firmly. Despite their closeness, it wasn't even that long since they had met. Lowering the formalities so early in their friendship was, culturally, a rarity indeed, especially so when Mina hadn't informed anyone else that she wished to be referred to as this.

If it was an announcement to everyone, then it would make sense. This was a private revelation. Only Izuku would be calling her by her first name in this case.

Her response was cheerful, and simple. "Because you're my best friend, that's why!"

Crimson made its way rapidly onto the freckled boy's cheeks. "A-Ashido-"

"In fact… You're the first friend I've ever had." She said, flatly, before taking off the glove on her left hand, to show off her inhumane complexion. "You don't tend to make my friends when you look like me. People tend not to stick around."

While Izuku knew that this information shouldn't have surprised him as much as it ended up doing, that didn't change the fact that it still had caught him off guard. Of course, it made complete sense though. Mina was probably the victim of some of the worst sort of discrimination out there because of her obvious alterations. It was yet another huge difference between both of the July born teenagers.

Still, there was just something about hearing it. About hearing those words from someone who had been part of that world. Who had faced that reality. Something soul crushing and disheartening. Something that honestly hurt the empathetic boy to hear.

Mainly because, it reminded him of himself, back in middle school. When he had been picked on by those in the playground and in the classroom. There were a few reasons for it, one being his lack of skill at regular activities like sport, though he always tried his best. Some of his classmates just found him plain weird. Never outright hated though, he was more like the runt of the litter, always the one teased and picked on, but never kicked aside. He knew what it was like to lack companionship, to lack the simply feeling of having a friend, to understand another person.

Comparatively, he was fortunate. When the young had begun to learn about the world, and the dangers of those who had Quirks, they all seemed to band together, accepting even someone whom they had considered to be a wimp into their circle because they felt it was safer to be in large numbers for the unlikely, but very real possibility that they ended up running into one of society's new super powered members. The teasing suddenly stopped, and everyone was kind to one another, though banter remained. Katsuki and Izuku grew closer, as did many other students.

Mina never got that opportunity, and she was aware of how much she had been robbed of.

"I mean, I'm used to it." the horned girl carried on, as she put her glove back on, generated some Acid within her palm, and tried throwing a handful of her Quirk towards her targets. Without the ribbons, it was a far more successful affair, actually making it past her hand. In fact, it even made it past the targets – The potential was there to make this work, once Mina had a feel for how using her Quirk in conjunction with these gloves worked. "Everyone at Yuuei has to be used to being on their own. Even someone like Uraraka has to know how it feels to know that we're fundamentally different from people who are Quirkless."

"Your Quirks are the only thing different about you." Izuku told her, looking at where her ball of Acid had landed. It had missed by a few inches to the left, but again, with practice, Mina could make it work. "I used to be Quirkless, and now I've got One For All inside me. If that's the case, then doesn't that mean that you're just the same as the Quirkless, aside from having a Quirk?"

"It's a pretty big difference, dude." Another throw, this time, a bit too far to the right. "Come on, it's pretty dumb to say that there's no fundamental difference between someone Quirkless and someone who can generate fire from their body."

"You have the same thoughts. The same feelings. The same hopes and dreams…"

"A lot of our hopes and dreams involve hoping we don't get killed on our way to the store."

Sighing, Izuku nodded. "We're really going to have to work at this Hero thing… It can work. I know it will."

"Quirks are the future." Mina said, taking careful aim as she secreted more of her Acid. "Our job is just to help people accept that and accept Quirks in society, when we get right down to it."

"You're sounding like Kirishima."

"I mean, he's an arrogant prick who I'd love to give some hydrofluoric burns, but objectively speaking, he's not wrong when he says we're the next stage in evolution." Shrugged the shorter girl, this time, taking her time as she prepared to throw the ball within her palm. "That's how it works, right? Creatures with mutations breed and then the mutation becomes common?"

"I'm not sure if that applies to Quirks." Chuckled the young boy. "Quirks are extremely varied for a start, and then you've got someone like Todoroki. His parents have the genes for Quirks, but they're just dormant and won't activate, and he ended up with a mixture of what his parents should have had. We still don't know a lot about how Quirks work. I haven't even heard of two Quirked people having a kid, so we don't know if the same thing happens there, or if the kid would only inherit one. Though I suppose it would be a similar case… And Kirishima isn't a bad guy, you know."

This time, when Mina threw her Acid towards the rock targets before her, she hit it, dead centre

"Hah!" Izuku exclaimed, making fists with both his hands. "Nice one!"

"What the hell d'you mean, Kirishima isn't a bad person?" Shooting a look towards him, from the corner of her eyes, Mina expressed absolute bewilderment at the statement. "You remember that he tried to attack you when you first showed up, and he's been treating you like shit since, right?"

"Kirishima isn't the first person to do that." The boy said simply, while tugging on the green highlights in his hair. "I've met a bunch of Quirked people who've attacked me before when they figured out I was Quirkless. I'm kind of used to it."

"You're used to people trying to knock you out and get everyone to turn against you?"

Grinning gently, Izuku shook his head and looked towards her, without a hint of malice in his expression. "There was this one person I met who was called Shigaraki a couple years ago. He had a Quirk we ended up nicknaming Decay. Whenever he touched something with all five fingers on one hand, it would start to disintegrate. A pretty scary Quirk, huh?" And… Well, he did _not_ like me."

Unsure of where this story was going, or what it had to do with the current point, Mina had to raise an eyebrow. But she was interested nonetheless, so she allowed him to keep talking, to see what this little segment of her crush's past would reveal.

"The guy kept trying to use his Quirk on me for a really long time, so…. Me and Kacchan he to tie him up, and use different materials to cover up each of his fingers to stop him from using his power. After that, we talked to him, a lot. Fed him, made sure he was comfortable. When he finally started talking… He told us about himself, and the things that he'd been through. He had a nasty scar on his lips, and over his right eye. Apparently, his parents had attacked him when they learned about him being Quirked, and tried to kill him, using knives. Shigaraki…. Killed them instead."

A shudder quickly ran down Mina's back. It was true, Quirks could be used as deadly weapons, but the thought of killing someone with her Acid was one she didn't think about. She was more than capable of doing so, she knew, and if it came to it, she was prepared to do such a thing…. But that didn't mean she liked the idea.

"He's the grandson of the person who gave Toshinori-Sensei One For All, so I brought him here when I told him. He left before we came here with you though, for some reason. I don't think he's stable… But, my point is… I don't know what kind of a life Kirishima has had." Bringing the conversation back around to the red haired Hardening Quirk user, Izuku began to explain his point of view when it came to dealing with people who were hostile towards him. "I don't know what kind of life he's had, or what kind of life anyone in those dorms has had. Terrible things have happened to Quirked people because of people who are Quirkless. Terrible things happened to you because of your family knowing that you had a Quirk…. And you're here now, trying to help me stop the fighting between Quirked and Quirkless. I don't believe that anyone is totally irredeemable. I think that, if they're shown a better way, people can change."

He then pointed towards the costume Mina was wearing.

"You know, Yaoyorozu made the materials for that for me. Kirishima told everyone about those motorcyclists, and how we went to stop them, so those two came up to me when I was looking for a way to make your costume acid-proof, and she made those as a thank you."

Mina's mouth opened lightly, although no noise came out. It was actually a question that she had been holding her tongue about for a while now. Getting this much Acid durable material would be expensive, and nearly impossible to just get hold of at the speed that he had. No specialist stores for this sort of thing existed in Tokyo – Certainly not within their price range, anyway. To have it delivered to a school like Yuuei would never work, either. It would be really easy to track, and even disregarding that, many companies outright refused service to Quirked people. Delivery to a school designed specifically for those who had Quirks wasn't going to happen in a thousand years. So, his explanation made sense.

Poor treatment of Izuku was at an all-time low as well. While it was clear that no one was particularly fond of him within the dorm rooms, it was also apparent that none of them were going out of their way to try to harass or cause him anguish, as the first couple of weeks had been. That treatment had ended around the same time that they had fought off the bikers. That was because of Kirishima?

"I… Didn't know." She confessed. In her defence, Izuku hadn't mentioned this fact to anyone. Not that he had intentionally left out the detail, but had instead been more focused on creating the costumes, and informing them of the kindness that the two of them had shown him just slipped his mind.

Giving her another slight smile, he finished off by saying, "Maybe he's starting to get used to the idea of having someone like me around."

"Still don't trust him though." Warned the black eyed girl, getting back to secreting more corrosive liquid in her hands. "Trust me on this one, just because someone does you a favour once, it doesn't mean that they like you, or trust you. Especially when it comes to people who have Quirks."

"Bad experience?"

"Multiple bad experiences, mostly with con artists." She briefly stated, before lobbing the next concoction at another rock, hitting it square on the mark. "Hey, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!"

Just because a person had a Quirk, it didn't mean that they were friendly to those who also had the same powers as them. Indeed, many did indeed try to trick other Quirked people, to rob them of what little they had. Japan in particular was a place that embodied the survival of the fittest and of the smartest, especially when it came to Quirks.

"We'll stop that too." Izuku stated simply, watching as she threw a couple more clumps, hitting her targets each time. "We'll stop all of it." A bold promise, though not even close to his other promises.

"I'll hold you to that one, Hero."

There was a lull in the conversation after that, as Mina kept practicing and successfully getting used to her Quirk and gloves combination. She had about an eighty percent accuracy rate, hitting eight targets out of ten consistently. There was room for improvement, yes, but it was a very good sign of what was to come with enough training, practice, and experience.

However, the gloves were near perfect for her. Once she had gotten used to them, they'd be just as good as using her actual hands.

Next on the list, were the Acid-proof boots. As Izuku and Uraraka had pointed out, the dark scarlet and tan coloured boots were customised for her use specifically. Laced with the same materials that made her gloves and costume acid-proof, they were too. At the bottom of the boots, as well as on the midsole, were a series of cut out holes. These allowed the girl to eject her acid from her feet, for added offensive testing.

And, as Mina had practiced in the past, it allowed her the ability to slide alone the ground. By ejecting a slightly corrosive, but majorly harmless substance, that was more like a lubricant than it was a deadly serous, she could glide along the ground like she was ice skating. This wasn't anything particularly new to Mina. She had figured out that she could do this when she was ten years old. These boots simply allowed her to do so when she was supposed to be concealing who she was. The amount of time taken on the boots was probably far longer than any other single piece of the costume, due to having a much more rough, thick, and intricate surface than any other part of the design. Izuku had spent a full two days on them, one for each boot.

For the most part, everything about the costume was in working order, the materials that Yaoyorozu had made for them durable, and reliable. It caused the fifteen year old to let out a sigh of relief that, for the most part, the costume he had made was good enough for the pink girl. He had been worried that something had been overlooked, that something would go wrong, and that the costume was a total failure. Instead, he was confronted with the fact that his design was, in reality, very failsafe, and totally a perfect match for the girl concerned.

His final verdict came after just an hour of experimentation – The costume would suffice. If he had any ideas in the future, he would see about integrating them, but for the current moment, he was convinced that his friends costume was going to hold out.

"I think that's good, Ashido." He said, looking at his phone, and realizing that the experimentation process has killed a full hour. The time was now one in the morning. All he could be thankful for about that was the fact that they didn't have any classes today. "We should get back to the dorms."

"Mina." Mina reminded him.

"S-Sorry, uh…. Mina."

His use of her first name caused the pink girl to give him a great big, unrepressed smile from ear to ear. Sliding over to the side of the room using her Quirk, the teenage girl outstretched her hands to avoid crashing into the wall, turned around, and began to undress from her costume without a word of warning to the awkward boy. He quickly turned around when he realized what she was doing.

In his mind, his use of her first name was to be polite and to comply with her request, and her reasoning was so good that he didn't need to justify it to himself. Mina's family was abusive, she wanted nothing to do with them. Calling her Ashido was just habit. He was her best friend, according to her, a statement which made him blush on its own.

Mina was an incredible person to Izuku. That was the long and the short of it.

And he liked being her friend. Her best friend, according to her. That put a smile on his face whenever he thought about it.

Proactively, as she changed, Izuku peeked outside the door, looking as far to either side as his vision would allow. He saw no movement, on the right or left, and no signs of anyone being awake, or around. Their schedule had said as much, so this was perfect. If they left before the next rotation, they would be able to walk right through the dorms front door, and no one would be the wiser.

"Ready to go." Whispered the pink girl, careful so her voice didn't carry off into the dark night to alert someone that Izuku hadn't seen.

Flicking the switches to turn the lights off, both pupils made their way out of the training building, as quickly and quietly as they possibly could. The route back to the dorms was a simple one, albeit rather inconvenient. It was directly opposite the other side of the school. All they had to do was go around the building, and they'd be completely fine.

Taking the lead, Izuku walked, lightly on his feet, past the wall where the gas canisters that the motorcycle group had thrown over the walls, a few weeks prior. There were still some marks on the walls and pavements where they had exploded. How it hadn't been considered an act of domestic terrorism would have been beyond Izuku had he no knowledge of the general media biases against individuals with powers.

Todoroki had made very sure to keep him informed on that particular front.

When he reached the corner of the building, he stopped, and pressed his back against the wall. Mina did the same, only crouched down, so her body was closer to the ground. Daring to peek around the corner, Izuku spotted nothing out of the ordinary to worry either of them, so he left his cover, and Mina followed.

Better safe than sorry.

They remained close to the walls, though this was more a psychological protection. It didn't matter that they were filled with shrubbery. Walking in the open without anything near them felt like they were too vulnerable. To the side, they would have a slightly higher chance of being unnoticed. And it felt safer too, just knowing that there was one direction that they couldn't possibly be spotted from.

Both of them were also used to navigating in dark areas. Mina's came from having to live in alleyways and less savoury places, while Izuku's came from multiple occurrences happening during the night that he and Katsuki had gone out to try and stop. One particular incident involved an individual who had a Quirk that let him gain superhuman strength during the night, that he used to try and mug people. That was one of the rare events in which the two of them decided that it would be best if the police got their hands on the Quirked before them. Either way though, it had helped Izuku get better at relying on his other senses to find his way around in pitch darkness, and had also helped his eyes adapt a small bit better.

"Look, all I'm sayin' is that if we put in a request for tranquilisers, we'd probably have a better chance at getting away with shooting these kids if they cause us trouble."

"That's what a Taser is for."

Wide eyed and terrified, Izuku grabbed hold of his female companion, and shoved her to the ground, landing just next to her, and praying to Gods that he didn't believe in that the bushes they were now laying down in would provide them with enough cover.

Voices. Guard voices. From behind them.

Silently, both of them looked at one another in terror. There weren't supposed to be any guards out this early! Their schedule stated that they were due another patrol in fifteen minutes from now, not one right now! Had their count been off, or was there simply some other factor at play?

Did they know what the two of them had been doing?

Had they seen them?

Why were they here?

Questions and more questions all bounced around inside the walls that made up Izuku's skull. The chances were that this was a changing off the guard, as it were, employees heading home for the night. But they were still uniformed, armed, and they had flashlights.

Flashlights they were using the find their way to the exit gate.

Izuku held his breath. He didn't even want to chance his own respiratory cycle given the pair of them away. Mina did the same, judging from how still and pale she had gone. Given the natural tone of Mina's skin colour, her going pale was saying a huge amount. It was clear why. She had a genuinely good reason to fear guards like this. Abuse from those in authority wasn't rare.

Without thinking about it, Izuku slipped his hand over hers, and clasped onto it tightly, to try to provide her with some comfort. For a moment, there wasn't any response from her, but she quickly wrapped her fingers around his hand, and held on for dear life.

"Besides, you know tranqs aren't legal in Japan, Fudotoku."

"Not against humans, no. Do Quirked count?"

"They're just kids, Fudo. Take it easy."

"You know one of those kids can literally blow stuff up just by thinking about it, right? And one can cover his body in Electricity. What makes you think a Taser is gonna be enough to stop that?"

"I mean, he's got a point there, Seiji."

Three of them, judging by the voices and the footprints. The references to Katsuki and Kaminari's Quirks' were notable too.

Looking towards Mina again however, Izuku saw something that he'd only seen in people who were absolutely terrified. Her eyes were wide, and her skin was white as a ghosts. For someone of normal complexion, that would be a scary sight as it was. For someone like Mina though, it was downright horrific. Her hand trembled within his, and her lips moved, silently repeating a single word over and over again.

The word, 'No.'

Over and over again. Like she were possessed by some sort of demon, cursed to repeat the same phrase until its soul was exorcized.

But now, the guards were stood practically right next to them. Izuku couldn't say anything, or move, or breathe, lest he risk uncovering them both and suffering the wrath of the guards.

"You seen the list of Quirks here? These kids can do weird, freaky shit. Buncha freaks."

"Hey, here's a question – How d'you think Quirks even became a thing, anyway? Like, you think it was some sort of experiment by the government, or aliens, or what?"

"Aliens? God damn it, Seiji, you really do think some weird stuff up, you know that?"

"You got a better suggestion?"

"Evolution, maybe?"

A Series of laughs came from all three guards. Two sets of footsteps kept walking right by, but one set didn't, and came to a stop, right next to both Izuku and Mina. The boy's heart stopped.

"Really though. What do you think?"

"Huh?" The other two stopped now. "About where Quirks came from?"

"Yeah."

"Doesn't really bother me. So long as I get paid to guard the freaks, I don't really care where they come from."

"I'm guessing it's an illness or something. Like that whole Ebola thing that made the US piss itself for no reason."

"How would an illness cause Quirks though?"

"You're asking me to explain a phenomenon that the top scientists can't explain. What were you expecting, a PhD and a framed certificate of 'I know what the fuck I'm talking about'?"

"Piss off."

"What's got you so interested though? Someone you know Quirked?"

A pause.

"Yeah. My little sister."

"Ouch."

"Yikes."

"Sorry your sisters a freak, dude."

"Don't worry about it, its fine."

"Kid try to do anything stupid when you knew her?"

"Nothing in particular."

"Lucky guy. I'm just marking the days until one of these student fuckers tries to get smart."

"Seriously, lay off, Fudotoku. I haven't seen them try anything clever."

"Why would they where they're right in front of you, Seiji?" As this one spoke, blinding light hit Izuku and Mina both directly in their eyes, causing both to silently close them as tightly as they could, temporarily blinded by the sudden harsh light source directly to the pupil. "Most bullies don't do it right in front of their teachers."

"They're still kids though."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, you like kids. Shoulda become a teacher if you like the little shits so much."

"Yeah, why did you even apply for this job, Seiji? This doesn't seem to be something that you'd wanna do. Never took you for an Anti-Quirked sorta guy. What's that story?"

"Money."

"Ah. The route of all evil."

"Mhm."

"Well, on the bright side – If this fails, maybe you can get a job working in a Pre-school for the Quirked. That's gotta be what comes next, right?"

The group of guards began walking once again, a couple of soft chuckles as they did. The light finally left the two students, though Izuku couldn't open his eyes, still stinging and painful, and tearing up from the bright light.

Although, his ears worked perfectly fine.

And what he heard next made Mina's actions make perfect sense.

"Pft. Whatever you say, Ashido."

* * *

"Deku?!"

"Midoriya? What's wrong with Ashido?"

Katsuki and Todoroki both stood before the green eyed teen, guiding a solemn Mina, one whom barely even seemed to register the presence of the other two as they spoke. She made no effort to move her head, and was barley even making an effort to walk as it was, taking tiny steps forwards as opposed to long strides like she normally did. There was no life, no energy.

The second that they saw her, both the Half-Cold-Half-Hot and Explosion Quirk users felt like they were looking at a completely different person, and not Mina Ashido.

"Just get her door open. I'll explain later." Izuku whispered as loudly as he dared. Until Mina was in her room, they couldn't risk waking up anyone else. If they saw her, questions would raise as to what the two of them had been doing.

Todoroki quickly made his way over to Mina, helping her, and trying to offer some kind of comfort with his presence, for whatever good it did. As he did so, Katsuki followed the instructions given by his childhood friend, and used the key that the pink girl had provided him with an hour before to unlock said door, and open it ide, so all three of his friends could enter at once if the need be.

Mina was shaking by the time Izuku managed to get her back to her room. Quite literally shaking. She wasn't cold in any particular way, but her body was jittering back and forth, out of outright terror. Trauma, more than likely, Izuku had to guess. It was a disturbing sight to have to witness from her. One that he wished he hadn't inadvertently caused.

There was a certain amount of blame that he did place on himself. After all, it was his idea to go out tonight, and to train with the costume, to find faults in its design. Faults which, aside from the ribbons, simply hadn't existed, so they hadn't gained all that much at all. Of course, there was logically no way that he could have known that those guards would show up when they did. They weren't even on the patrol listing that he had been given, so he had absolutely no reason to suspect such a thing.

But it was still his fault that this had happened to her. Had they not left…

He sat her down on her bed, where she continued to shake, and stared silently, with dead eyes, at the wooden floor beneath her. Unresponsive to any form of stimulation from the world outside her head. She seemed to have completely shut herself down.

And Izuku couldn't blame her. Of everything that could have happened today, of everything that could have been revealed, this hadn't even been something that he'd considered. The possibility that something like this could happen just didn't exist in his head, and now his failure to consider that chance had caused his friend to become shaken and wrecked beyond all measure.

Another Ashido, here on the Yuuei campus, working as a security guard to keep the Quirked in line. Her own brother…

She remained tight lipped when it came to what had happened to her before she was thrown out of her family house. Considerably, and violently tight lipped. The first time he'd ever had Mina yell at him with genuine malice was when he asked to see her horns. When he questioned if it was from a time before the two of them knew one another, he took that as a sign that she was referring to an incident with her family. He didn't have proof…. Until now, anyway. Now he had too much proof.

What exactly happened remained an answered question…. But given her genuine horror at her brother being here, and her resentment towards anyone inspecting her horns….

He felt himself swallow. He had a sickening feeling that he was starting to get what had happened.

Suddenly, not going by her family name became so, so much easier. "Oh, Mina…" He whispered, quietly and dejectedly. He didn't know what to do or say to offer her some comfort. To make her feel safe and happy again. He had an explosively strong Quirk at his fingertips, but was powerless to help his friend. He was absolutely powerless when it counted the most.

"Midoriya." The bi-hair coloured boy said, standing on the inside of the room next to the door frame. Behind him, Katsuki stood in plain sight. "Leave Ashido alone for a minute. You need to tell us what happened."

"Kacchan." Izuku then focused his attention on his childhood friend. "Where's Uraraka?"

"Already on her way." He responded quickly, holding up his phone, which showed a small, unreadable message from the Zero Gravity Quirk user in response to one that Katsuki had sent of his own initiative.

With a small nod, Izuku stood up. "Good. I think you'll all need to hear this."

As he made his way to leave the pink girl in her room though, he was quickly stopped by her hand suddenly reaching out and grabbing tight hold of his jacket's sleeve, and refusing to let go. She had a grip that put a vice to shame right now, one that literally pulled Izuku back as he walked from her. An iron grip, with strength that Izuku was surprised that she was even physically capable of having. She was scared, there wasn't a shadow of a doubt about that, and she was clinging onto the smallest things that gave her comfort, and she wasn't going to let them go if she had the power.

Right now, that was Izuku.

For a second, he just looked at her grip, and then towards her. Her head still hadn't moved an inch, a fact that would be slightly creepy to an outsider. If her expression had changed or not was something that Izuku wasn't able to tell from this angle. Still, this single gesture pulled at his heartstrings, making him hesitate to leave the room at all, all of the sudden. Companionship, warmth and care was what she needed right now, more than anything else in the world. Izuku would be very happy to provide these things for her…

But Katsuki, Todoroki, and Uraraka needed answers. They needed to know, and he needed to report their success in regards to the costumes. He needed to act like the leader the group had decided he was. He couldn't let them down.

"M-Mina, please, let go!"

"Stay." She quietly spoke, for the first time since the run in. There was a tremble to her voice, one that was holding back chokes and cries. "Please… Don't leave…"

"I'll – I'll be right back, I promise."

"Don't leave me on my own…"

With a huge sense of guilt running throughout his entire being, Izuku slipped his dark green jacket off – It was his favourite one, and one that, when it was cold out, or in the more recent months, needed to go unseen, he always took with him. Once it was off of him, he quickly tuned around, and took his jacket back from her as best he could – Her hand still tightly clamped onto it. He then flung it open, and wrapped it around the stiff pink girl, putting it over her shoulders as comfortably as he could.

He then knelt down, so he could see Mina's face. When he came into view of her eyes, her iris and pupils looked towards his. She was on the verge of tears, but was holding them back as much as she could.

Izuku offered her as warm a smile as he could. "Hold onto my jacket for me, okay? I'll come back to get it once I've finished talking to everyone else. I won't go away from your room, I promise."

Mina stiffly nodded. It was the best that she could do in her current state. She responded croakily with an "Okay.", which was barely even audible.

Trying to offer the most comforting smile that he could, and feeling like he'd failed once he'd done so, he stood up and turned around, exiting the Acid Quirk users room. Once he had left, he looked towards her again, to see her finally moving her head up to lok at him, and trying to return the same smile, and failing herself. Katsuki then shut the door, and locked it as soon as he was able.

With any luck, that would help her to feel more secure. Once done, he passed the key over to Izuku, for him to unlock when he was ready to head back into the room.

"What was that all about?" Todoroki questioned, blinking twice, like he'd just watched someone perform a magic trick in some weird eastern European language that he didn't understand, but was still expected to applause anyway. He was utterly baffled, yet concerned at the same time.

Two small shakes of his head indicated that Izuku wouldn't say. "Not until Uraraka gets here. This is… Some really heavy stuff, and I don't want to have to say it more than once." He confessed. While he still didn't have all the details… He had a pretty good idea on what was happening.

Immediately after finishing his sentence, the rapidly approaching footsteps from behind them indicated the arrival of the brown haired girl. They both turned around to see her, running towards them with look of panic on her face.

"I got your message, Katsuki!" She called with worry, a bit too loudly for the liking of those present. Before she could say another word, Izuku quickly made an X shape with his arms, while Todoroki pressed a finger against his lip, and hissed quietly, to indicate for her to be silent. She blushed lightly, and lowered her volume when she spoke next. "What's going on?"

Three pairs of eyes suddenly fell on Izuku, who sighed and put his hands into his pockets. "Okay, you're all here…This can't leave our group, got it? This kind of thing is personal for Mina." He was honestly surprised that no one made comments about him using her first name. The seriousness of the situation probably made such an observation redundant though. The time for teasing wasn't now.

"Understood." Todoroki nodded.

"I got it." Uraraka commented.

Katsuki simply nodded his head without a word. To Izuku, that was all the confirmation needed.

He let out a deep sigh, and carried on. "On the way back from testing out Mina's costume, we nearly got spotted by some guards. We managed to avoid them seeing us by hiding in some bushes." Further proving this fact, he gestured towards his trousers, covered in dirt and splinters from twigs. "When they passed us, we heard them talking to each other… One of them was called Ashido."

Brown, red, and heterochromic hazel and blue eyes widened at this sentence. Uraraka and Todoroki looked towards one another, while Katsuki simply buried his face within his left palm.

"A few… About a week ago, Uraraka," Izuku called up the attention of the brunette, who turned to meet him in the eye. "You remember that you asked me to check with her horns for the hood requirements?"

Hesitantly, she nodded. "You said that she wouldn't let you see them."

"Right… She also said she wouldn't let me see them because of something that happened before she met any of us. It was the first time I've ever really seen her lose her cool like that before…" He gulped before continuing, his throat feeling like it was getting tighter as he spoke. "I can't prove anything without Mina telling us so… But since both you guys grew up in households that hated Quirks, and me and Uraraka have seen what that leads to…"

A long pause, before Izuku could bring himself to finish.

"I… Think Mina was abused back at home. Something that went beyond just being kicked out, or having boiling water thrown in the face. No offense, Todoroki. I'm not trying to throw your injury under the bridge."

"None taken. At all." Todorooki said, though he did use his right side to generate some ice to cover up the scar left over, soothing some of the stings that he occasionally still got from it. "I… Think I see where this is going though."

"I thought you might…" Izuku commented heavily. "If I'm right, then you're probably the only person that really understands what's happening to her right now."

"Trauma." Came the response from the half burned boy. "If you're right about all of this, she's got a form of trauma that she associates with her family and her horns. A bit like how I see my scar and my fire powers as associations to my parents. Some burns are easy to get over though, depending on the person, the location, and once the pain has gone. Aside from it identifying me as Quirked, and stinging sometimes, mine doesn't really bother me." Glancing to the pink girl's door, he sighed lightly himself. "If horns are the cause of her trauma though… I imagine something a lot less… Adaptable happened. And now, one of the causes of that trauma is back in her life."

"She'd come here thinking that she'd be at least safe…" Katsuki commented, tightly grabbing the bridge of his nose and scowling, showing the softer side that he rarely ever allowed anyone else to see – The side that showed he cared deeply about every one of his friends, despite the shouting and the swearing and the violence he displayed at all times. "This place can't even fuckin' do that right…"

"I-Is she okay?" Uraraka questioned, her concern apparent in her voice.

"She's… As good as you could expect." Izuku carefully worded. She wasn't hurt, at least not physically, and she was, for the most part, seeming to recover from the revelation. "I think it might have just been immediate shock."

"Even so, trauma can still mess with a person." Todoroki explained. "This could be something that sticks with her for her whole life, like Post Traumatic Stress…"

Those words were the ones that seemed to trigger Katsuki's rage. Letting loose a few sparks in the hand that hung to his side, he then turned away from the group, and storming his way towards the exit of the dorms, intent on hunting down the young girls older brother and beating him within an inch of his worthless life.

"Kacchan, wait."

And those words were all it took to get Katsuki to stop dead in his tracks. He didn't turn to face Izuku though, his hands trembling in pure fury.

It wasn't that Izuku didn't understand Katsuki's anger – He felt it himself. If he could, he would hunt down Mina's brother, throw him at her feet and make him beg forgiveness. Whatever his role in Mina's trauma was, he was guilty of making her the wreck that she was. That whatever his role had been, an innocent girl who, by her very nature, was cheerful and life loving, now had regressed into a ball of fear and terror. Even if it was just for the night. Even if it was just initial shock…

Whatever he had done, it wasn't excusable. It was the very first time in his entire life that Izuku wanted to go out and make someone outright pay for their actions…

But he couldn't let that happen.

"…Deku, you're the one who saved me from living on the streets. You're the one who rescued everyone here, including Ashido. You're the one talking about this idea of being Heroes. We all owe you our fucking lives, and I get that." Small explosions detonated from Katsuki's palms continuously, the crackling sound in the air, heard only by those in the corridor. "You fucking know that we'll all do anything that you ask from us. That's because we all fucking trust you and believe in you. You got that?"

"I know…"

"Then do something for me." Turning his head to look Izuku square in the eyes, his blood red irises small and focused, and his teeth bare, scowling at his best friend like he was looking for an excuse to blast him out a window. "Give me a good fucking reason why you're stopping me from finding her brother and making him fucking pay for what he's done!"

"I want to do it too." Came the shocking response to Katsuki's question. "I really want to find him too. I understand how angry you are, Kacchan. And in a perfect world, I'd be on your side."

"Then why – "

"Because this isn't a perfect world. Because if we do, we prove the entire world right." Izuku closed his eyes, remembering all the things Quirks have been accused of in his memory. "Quirked individuals cause violence. Eighty percent of all violent crimes in Japan are caused by Quirks. Quirked people are evil. Quirked people are dangerous. Quirks are the same as terrorist bombs." His eyes then opened, looking toward his friend with a mixture of genuine agreement, and resignation to the fact it couldn't happen. "It's not fair on people who have Quirks. It's wrong, and it's not fair. But… If we prove them right, then we're only going to hurt our cause of proving that Quirks can be used for good. Because if we do that… Then we aren't Heroes."

Crackling still existed within Katsuki's hands, sparks jumping out of his palms and onto the ground below them. He scowl remained, though it strained itself as he considered Izuku's points.

"Please, Kacchan… Don't do it. Trust me?"

"Katsuki."

His eyes then bounced off of Izuku, and then towards Uraraka, giving her the same angry, ferocious glare. His blood red eyes were seen by many as an indicator of the danger that he represented, the damage he could cause, and the unrepressed fury that he had within him. While all were technically accurate explanations of parts of his personality, his friends knew that they weren't the only parts. Not by a longshot.

Trying to give a soft smile, Uraraka spoke calmly towards the raging blond haired boy. "I know you mean well…. But Deku's right. If we do that…If we want to prove our Quirks can be used for good… We can't keep adding onto the amount of Quirks that are used for selfish reasons."

Glancing between the two of them, before his eyes finally landed on his hands. Internally he fought himself, before the sparks finally faded away. Still angry however, he turned on his heel, slammed the side of his fist against the wall, and went off towards his room. If his random act of violence against the nearest solid object had woken anyone else up was a question that would need clarification later on. Since Mina was in her room, and out of the prying eye however, this wasn't as much of an issue as it had been a few minutes ago.

"I'll uh, go make sure he doesn't punch a hole through another wall." Uraraka quickly said, before jogging off in the same direction that Katsuki went, catching up with him before he entered his room.

Izuku let out a long winded sigh, during which he used his left hand to cover his eyes. He understood why Katsuki wanted blood. He did. Truly. Even he did, and he was never the sort of person to want to do such a thing. But he had to reign in his friend when he crossed the line, before he ended up getting himself thrown into a prison cell. It was reassuring to know that he wasn't the only person with a vested interest in doing that. "Thanks, Uraraka." He then took a look towards Todoroki out of the corner of his eye. "So… What should I do with Mina?"

"Best thing I can recommend is comforting her." Todoroki simply suggested. "It helped me when I was taken to the orphanage for Quirked after that whole mess with my parents. Just… Be there for her."

"Yeah… Okay… Thanks, Todoroki."

"Good luck." The half red half white haired boy offered, patting the black haired boy on the back before making his way towards his own room, leaving Izuku on his own to enter Mina's room again at his own leisure.

He took a moment to take a deep breath and collect his thoughts. Todoroki's advice had been good and logical, atypical of someone who had himself been subjected to that sort of terrible abuse and treatment at the hands of relatives. Izuku couldn't even begin to imagine that sort of pain, more grateful than ever for his own mothers support and unconditional love and care. He made a mental note to remember to call her the next day, to let her know that he, Katsuki and Mina were all okay. With everything going on, he'd neglected to do so. Refocusing on what he was doing, he let out the air he was holding in, and inserted the key into the lock. He twisted it a full three-hundred-sixty degrees, unlocking the bolt, and allowing him to enter the horned girl's room.

As expected, she was sat in the exact same place, barely having even moved since Izuku had left her there. When Izuku entered, her head slightly looked up, and she looked towards him, with what was technically a smile, since her lips curled upwards ever so slightly. No tears seemed to have fallen.

Not yet, anyway.

Shutting the door behind him, and locking it as he did so, he then tossed the key onto the nearby desk, and then went over to the still shaking girl. She seemed to have, at least a little bit, calmed herself down. Ever so slightly. Sitting down next to her, he tried to think up the right words to say, but struggled. What was he supposed to say to someone who was like this? What was he supposed to say to console her?

"…Are you... Okay?" He asked, hesitantly. It was all he had.

She wasn't okay. That wasn't anything that even remotely resembled okay, but it was honestly all he could even think of to say.

He just couldn't think of anything else.

Mina didn't respond for a couple of seconds, before turning to look at Izuku. The colour had returned to her skin, a light pink in lieu of the ghostly white she had turned into. She didn't say anything to him. Not a word.

Instead, she simply lowered her head, and pulled the hair away from the base of her right horn.

Revealing the sawed off segment that ran halfway through the extremity.

"Oh my… God…" Izuku stammered, wide eyed and horrified by what was in front of him. In the time that he'd known her, he hadn't once seen this before. She never let him get close to her horns.

Now he knew why.

"…My parents did this." Mina said, raising her head back up slightly, and looking to the wall in front of her. She gulped as she remembered the saw blade to her horn, feeling queasy as she did so. "I was nearly nine when it happened… They pinned me to the ground and just…. Got a…. Saw. They wouldn't stop…I begged them…. But they wouldn't stop…"

She shuddered.

"My brother… The guard. His name is Mara. He… Saw everything happen to me. He watched it happen… And he didn't… Do anything. He could have stopped it. Our parents listened to him… Did anything he asked them to…. They were just glad that one of their kids wasn't a freak. But he… Didn't. He watched it happen to me… Wanted it to happen to me… The only person who could have stopped it… He just sat there and watched…" She looked at Izuku in his eyes, and revealed, "That's why Quirkless people scared me when I met you. You… Always got what you wanted. You always won. And those of us who have Quirks… We're just your playthings…"

"M-Mina…" No longer was it just Mina who was shaken by all of this anymore. It had a very clear impact on Izuku himself.

"You showed me that's… Not always the case. I'm… Sorry, that I thought you were like that… I'm sorry for…. Mara being here. I'm… I'm sorry that I've been causing you all so much trouble…"

"Whe-Where is all of this coming from?" Aghast at the things she was apologizing for, Izuku simply could not just remain silent and listen to her any longer. "Mina, it's – I totally understand why you thought about Quirkless people like that. Even without your brother and family in the picture, I understand why, but why are you apologizing for that now?"

"…Even though everything about me is just another risk to add onto the pile of risks that being a Hero has…You're still going out of your way to try and help me..." Was this… All of the guilt that she had secretly been carrying all this time? All the things that she felt bad about, even though she had no direct control over them?

Could it be due in part to the fact that, as a Quirked, she just wasn't used to the idea of people wanting to help her? Was it because, deep down, she did still feel some self-loathing and blamed herself for the stress and worry that each one of her friends went through on a regular basis?

Did she just think that everything that happened to them was her fault?

Or was this her trauma talking, making her say things she didn't understand or mean? Either way…

"…Mina, you're… You're our friend. You're my friend. You don't need to feel this way about things… We're doing all of this because we want to help you. The Hero idea… I came up with it because of you. Because of what you've said to me… and because I want to help change things so that you can have a better life."

"But, if you – "

"I don't want to hear it." He cut off whatever Mina was about to say, placing his hands on her shoulders as he did so. A stark contrast to the way he normally was that surprised even himself, he thought of the absolute best way to try to get her to see things in a different light. With confidence and determination to get his point across to her that he hadn't felt even for the idea of Heroism, he spoke, "I don't want to hear you saying that you think you're a burden to us. You're not even close t anything like that! No one thinks about you this way! You're the one who's at the most risk out of everyone here, but you still want to do this! You're someone who is brave, someone who isn't afraid to fight to make the world better, and we're all happy to help you because you're our friend! You're one of us!" He then blushed lightly as his words. "Well… More accurately, I'm one of you…"

There was a brief moment where neither of them said anything, pausing, like they had just frozen one another in time, as Mina took Izuku's words in. Her trauma had made her reveal things that she wouldn't have otherwise, as she had become prone to overthinking and extreme anxiety from the shock of learning her brother was close by. Still, with those things out in the open now…

She looked at Izuku.

And then hugged him as tightly as she physically could.

* * *

 **This was a difficult chapter that sort of evolved into its own thing. Mina's brother was always going to show up, but I just kind of put him in here because I thought it would be fun and more interesting.**

 **We're finally moving onto the actual acts of Heroism in the next couple of chapters. I've got a few ideas that I think will be fun. I've been looking forward to these ones for a while now, so get hyped!**

 **I deleted the previous announcement chapter, by the way. If you didn't read it – I'm changing my user name to QuirkQuartz, so, there's a heads up.**

 **Second note – I have a Pat reon now under the name of Quirk Quartz, and you can find the link in my profile. Donations are heavily appreciated, but by no means are they required. You can find a lot more information on the actual Pat reon, but in brief – I don't try to pry your wallet open with rewards, I'm very open about where your money goes, and you're welcome to donate as much or as little as you like, if you choose to donate at all. Any donations at all would be highly appreciated.**

 **Thanks for your time, and I'll see you all next time – See ya!**


	15. Hero Names

Stealth wasn't exactly something that Mina was good at, in any way at all. With the many mutations that she had due to her Quirk, and how obvious that they were, anyone could easily recognise her, even if they had only ever seen her once before. She wasn't the kind of person that someone could just forget. In this Quirkless dominated world, she was probably permanently etched into the memories of the many people whom had seen her full appearance forevermore.

Quirks, particularly Mutation types, made this a common occurrence when it came to those who had these powers. Absolutely inhumane looking creatures that were passed off as Human were more and more common as time passed by. Still, the world still had a lot of accepting and adapting to do when it came to accepting those who were directly affected by this global phenomenon. And even then, they would be prominent and the centre of attention, if they liked it or not. Unless the world changed dramatically in the future. If Izuku's theory that Quirks were the dominant gene, and that, if people who possessed Quirks continued to survive and reproduce, the Quirked would be dominant, and that might detract the bizarre appearances of some of the more inhuman appearing individuals, if just by the process of everyone else having these powers … But that might take decades. Centuries, was far more likely. Until then, Mutation type Quirks, and those who had clear and obvious adaptations would continue to stand out for miles.

When someone looked like that, it made spying on someone that you didn't want to be seen by all that much harder. And for Mina, she did not, that was her brother.

It wasn't a wonder that she hadn't recognised him in the month that she'd been here – He had completely revamped his appearance since she had seen him late. A year ago, when he was eighteen, he possessed long, yet curly brown hair, the colour inherited from their mother, while the curls from their father. He had gone out of his way to colour his now ear-length hair, now a platinum white colour. He was also far skinnier when she had last seen him, and a lot shorter. Now, he would tower over her, and possessed muscle that put their dorm mate Sato's frame to shame. Along his right forearm, he had a tattoo as well, inked in black, the kanji for 'Quirked Control'. He was a completely different person to the boy that she had grown up with.

And now he was working at Yuuei as a guard.

Only two days had passed since this particular revelation had made itself known to the pink skinned girl, and she had already learned a lot about his routines and duties. It had become an obsession for her, whenever classes were no longer on, or when the group didn't need something for the Hero planned debut next week. In careful sneaking, and eavesdropping without getting too close, and without being seen, by some miracle, she had gathered this information thus far.

He was one of the higher ranking members of the staff. A sergeant, at such a young age. He apparently possessed a talent for leadership, which he gained by being able to talk and be friendly with his fellow co-workers, even those below him, so that they saw him more as a friend than a superior officer, and followed his orders without question because they explicitly trusted him, above all else. Even the knowledge that his younger sibling was Quirked wasn't enough to shake the faith that they had in him. His daily routine was one that he followed every single day, to the letter – When he arrived, he would be on patrol duty around the school grounds, and would do so until lunch. He would then guard the main gate out of the school grounds until he was relieved of duty, at around Six PM. He then retired to the guard's quarters, before leaving again to do a few late night patrols, which he seemed to spend talking to his group rather than look out for curfew breakers – Possibly because he didn't think anyone would actually dare risk it.

Showed how much he knew.

What happened in the quarters, and when he slept, when he left, how long he had been working for the school, and above all, _why_ he was working for the school, were all questions that remained unanswered.

Was he here to find her? It didn't seem likely to Mina. For starters, if he was here for her, then he would have been able to interact with her beforehand. It wasn't like she was difficult to spot at all, so not recognising her wasn't an excuse. If he wanted to find her, he would have done so within maybe the space of a few hours, and done whatever it was that he had wanted to do. He hadn't as much as approached her, so that couldn't be it.

Did he want to maintain some sort of sense of superiority against those who had Quirks? It wasn't like law enforcers abusing their legal abilities was an uncommon thing around the world, even before the development of superpowers. Some probably had joined just to be able to abuse those who had Quirks. Some people were just that cruel and obsessed with attaining some power in whatever various ways they could get it. Had Mara become one of those people?… It was a possibility.

Was he here just by coincidence? There wasn't any way that he could have known that she was going to be here, so perhaps he had just happened to end up here. Perhaps he had moved out of their old house, moved to Tokyo, and just ended up here, through no real desire of his own.

Maybe he was just looking for whatever ways he could find to get hold of money.

Just questions, and no real answers, in that particular regard. Questions that left the sixteen year old girl uneasy, with a sick feeling in her stomach that felt like a washing machine that would just not stop. Whatever he was doing here… Mina didn't trust him. She couldn't trust him. She refused to trust him in any way, shape or form. Granted, the two were never particularly close, and while she had never blamed him for it in the past….

He had made the choice not to stop their parents when they tried to saw off her horns. He made his choice when he made no effort to stop it from happening, when he just stood there and watched it happen. He had made his choice back then. She had made hers.

And her choice had been to look after both herself, and the people that she was closest to. To repay those who had shown her the first true kindness in her entire life. To help Izuku and his group become Heroes. To become one herself. To help them to follow the dreams that they had, and to help change this world.

She would admit to thinking about her family occasionally though. Despite all the bad blood between all of them, it was a subject of curiosity for Mina, by instinct if nothing else. She didn't care much for them, if at all, only prepared to protect them – If that seriously ended up being something that she had to do, statistically insignificant as it may be – Because she wanted to prove them and their bigotry wrong. Blood ties meant nothing to her, and it clearly didn't mean anything to them either.

They weren't her family. Not anymore. They might share blood, but that didn't make them a family.

But she did wonder about them. Did they miss her, or did they not care? Had they changed their minds about those who had Quirks, or were they still set in their ways? Did they feel regrets for what they had done to her, or did they not even think about it, or did they even go as far as to believe they were still justified in their actions? Did they even consider what they had done to be immoral? Was she Human in their eyes, or still that same demon they wanted maimed? These were questions that she, honestly, didn't care about the answers to. Her new feeling of self-worth that had come from interacting with Izuku and his friends had led her down the path to knowing that she was valid, and that she didn't need their approval to get by. She didn't need to bow to them. To be afraid of them. She wasn't afraid of them anymore.

That being said… She was curious. She wanted to know about the people that she had grown up with, even if it was overall pointless and inconsequential. She didn't care about them, and certainly didn't want to see them. Maybe there would be closure if she learned that the Ashido household had fallen into complete disrepair and was now just a battle zone at all points. Or maybe that would make her feel worse. She really didn't know what to think, other than the fact that she wondered about it sometimes.

Mara might have the answers… But she refused to speak to him until he approached her. As traumatic as it was to know that he was here, and that she would have to face him over and over again until he finally approached her, there were more important things than Mara to get ready for.

Though for now, she simply remained, watching, listening, and learning more and more about her brothers guard life.

* * *

"So, has every thought about what Hero Names they want?"

"I'm taking Alien Queen!"

The room looked towards Mina, whom had her fists pumped up next to her head, with the hugest grin on her face that anyone had seen in their entire time at Yuuei. There was definitely a sense of energy from her now that they hadn't seen in the past few days, since her brother had returned into her life by environmental factors. She almost seemed to be bouncing in her seat in excitement, practically huffing with pure enthusiasm, and her eyes, black as they may be, were sparkling due to her energy.

Since all the costumes had been tested over the last few days, and were now all ready, only two things remained before they started their official Hero sweep of the city, and began to finally use their Quirks for good. The only thing from a design standpoint, were their Hero names – Names that would characterize them as Heroes, that the public would know them by, and use to identify them, but also to protect their identities, so no one knew who they were. In comic books and manga, these names tended to offer a pun or play on words in reference to the Hero themselves.

And Alien Queen wasn't a difficult name to figure out when it came to Mina.

"Seriously? Alien Queen? Like, _the_ Alien Queen? From the films?" Uraraka questioned, leaning forwards in her chair with a grin on her lips. She was the only other person there who understood the reference due to actually consuming the same media that Mina had, and the humour and irony of it was not lost on her in any way.

"That's the one!" The Acid Quirk user beamed. "Before my parents threw me out, my dad was a movie geek, and I watched a ton of them when he did." While she was in the corner and keeping her mouth shut, of course. Speaking during a movie would just end up in her receiving a slap to the side of the face from her father, and that was if he was feeling generous. Other times, he'd just leave, out of fear of her, the scar he received from her still fresh in his memory, and permanently reminding him of the horrific nature of his daughter, and just what she was capable of. It resulted in less physical pain, but a lot more emotional pain for the young child. Still, in that abusive environment, she had actually watched a fair sum of entertainment media, and she knew what she liked.

The Alien franchise was her absolute favourite. She had grown a fondness for horror genres, because she understood the fear that the people on the screen felt. She lived in that same fear her entire life, only in her case, it was because of her Quirk, not because she was an Alien from Xenomorph Prime. And it did actually fit in thanks to her appearance – She already looked like an alien compared to the rest of the human race. If she was going to become someone that was going to be the focus of the media herself, even if she wasn't showing off her skin and abnormalities, she might as well be proud of what she was. She was tired of being ashamed. Now she stood to be proud of herself.

Once she had hidden all of her features, because as much as she'd love to show off some skin now, it would just be dangerous and foolhardy to do so.

Izuku had to smile at his friend's choice of name, understanding the reference despite never having watch the film. Relief filled his body, and he felt his shoulders relax as she spoke, revealing that she was actually in a good state of mind. A ton of stress was subsequently lifted from him, and the feeling was absolutely ecstatic.

Her breakdown had occurred only three days ago, and it had been nothing short of horrifying to see. Watching someone energetic, social, and outgoing like Mina, once the shackles of prejudice had been lifted from her, turn into… There weren't any words that Izuku knew that could honestly compare anything to what he'd seen from Mina. She wasn't the same person when she learned that her brother was on the campus. She was like a child, paralysed by terror. Traumatised. Genuinely afraid.

It wasn't an entirely accurate explanation of what had happened to Mina… But it was the closest that she could be compared to. Izuku was happy to see her getting back to her usual bubbly self. He had tried to help her with her brother's reappearance the best that he could, but he honestly hadn't known the best ways to do it. How could he? What did he even say to someone who had that bad a breakdown? Who had to face that every time she stepped outside, for risk of seeing her brother again? He had just followed Todoroki's advice, supported, and been there for her, and it seemed to have done a lot of good for her. She was getting better.

What she did in her own time, he didn't know. He knew that she was looking into what her brother did while she was out and around, but that was it. She hadn't said anything about what she was doing to find out said information, or who she was seeing or talking to. It was like a delicate game she was playing. A dangerous, but delicate game. Spying on Mara, while aware that he was probably spying on her while he went about other duties. Should her brother discover that she was spying on him, the situation that played out may become less than ideal…

But he trusted her. In the end, there wasn't much else other than that that he could do for her, other than have faith in her. Even though he had the ability to, he felt that this was something that mattered to her, and that he shouldn't get in her way. If she needed help, she would get it, but if she needed to do this alone, he would respect her desire to do so.

Facing the Zero Gravity Quirk user, Izuku then posed the question again. "What about you, Uraraka? What's your Hero name gonna be?"

The brunette girl grinned at both Izuku and Katsuki. "You guys remember when we first met, and you asked me to show you what my Quirk could do?"

Her question was rewarded with a nod from Izuku, who had a small smile on his face, showing that he understood where this was going, and he apparently approved of it. For some reason, that particular question seemed to irritate the red eyed blonde boy, whom folded his arms and narrowed his focus onto the brown eyed girl. "You're seriously going with fucking 'Infinity Girl'?"

Nodding rapidly, Uraraka confirmed her crush's theory. "That's it! Infinity Girl, the Gravity Hero! I was gonna go with Uravity, but then I thought that it might give my name away, so I think Infinity Girl is better!"

A chuckle escaped from Izuku's lips. It was a very Uraraka choice in name. He actually liked her choice. It was better than anything that he could come up with regarding her Quirk.

"Is there a story behind that name?" The recently self-proclaimed Alien Queen questioned, leaning forward in her seat with just as much interest in the conversation and origin of Uraraka's Hero name as said other girl had shown towards her own.

Clapping her hands together, the cheerful girl grinned, ear to ear, and looked towards the pink girl. "Okay, so, basically, when I told them about my Quirk, they asked me to show off exactly what it was that I could do. I used an old stress ball, and just used my Quirk to send it into the sky. And up even higher than that. Midoriya asked when it was going to fall, so I told him that it won't stop until I wanted it to, and that it was probably in the stratosphere at that point. Katsuki said 'To infinity and…. 'Bleeping' beyond." Uraraka censored herself, shooting a look towards the red eyed boy that almost seemed akin to a mother being disappointed in their child's bad language, not that Katsuki even slightly cared. "He's also terrible with names."

"I remember peoples fucking names!"

"No you don't." Mina teased. "You called me 'Raccoon Eyes' for weeks. You still do, actually."

"Watch it, you cotten candy headed runt!"

A small giggle escaped Uraraka, before she carried on. "Yeah, he started calling me Infinity Girl after I showed them my Quirk. So I'm taking that as my Hero Name!" Concluded the young girl, sending a kind smile towards the boy with whom her affections rested, only for him to growl lightly and look away, possibly out of embarrassment. "What about you then, Katsuki? You chose yours yet?"

"Lord Explosion Murder!"

At this, the entire room, the normally stoic and humourless Todoroki included, began to laugh and grin at the childish, extravagantly long and over the top ridiculous name. Again, it was a very fitting name, given the sort of personality that the spiky haired boy possessed, even if it did lack creativity, and wasn't even remotely subtle in any way, shape, or form. Such open amusement at his name seemed only to aggravate the boy, though he surprisingly managed to keep his composure, only letting off a single explosion within the contents of his left palm as a warning.

Managing to maintain his mostly surprised laughter within his lips, Izuku took in a deep breath, before he spoke again. "I uh, I don't think that's gonna work, K-Kacchan." Towards the end of his sentence, he almost began to laugh outright again, just catching himself before he opened up in a fit of giggles.

"Tell you what, you'd be better calling yourself "Explosion Boy" instead!" Giggled the acidic girl, before bursting into another fit of open laughter while clutching her stomach, unable to hold it back any longer.

"Are you all looking for a fight? You fucking do better!"

Wiping the tears that had resulted from laughing too much from her eyes, Uraraka spoke up once more, this time without any laughter in her voice, but with a serious suggestion. "I think I've got a good name for you, actually."

"Go on then."

"How about that word for the old German war tactic? You could call yourself Blitzkrieg!"

For a moment, Katsuki looked like he was about to verbally eviscerate the suggestion, along with some implications that Uraraka was an idiot and should think more before opening her mouth, but he stopped himself, and actually thought about the name for a few seconds, which were completely silent within the room.

"…I actually like that." He eventually admitted, slightly red in the cheeks, embarrassed by the fact that her suggestion was infinitely better, more creative, and well suited for the sort of Quirk that he had. It wasn't one that he could argue, or had any interest in arguing for that matter, because the suggestion was actually a very good one. "I'm… Going to use that."

He actually liked the name. Blitzkrieg, he felt, suited him.

It was a rare moment where the Explosion Quirk user was willingly allowing himself to be upstaged. If that was because he was in a relaxed sort of mood today, or because he didn't want to pass up the opportunity to have a name like that be what the media would report him as was unclear. Regardless though, the name had struck a cord with him, and he accepted that he had been outdone by the Zero Gravity Quirk user, along with her suggestion.

For her part, she seemed surprised, embarrassed, and then proud of herself, flipping through all three of the emotions, in order, and rapidly, from one to the next. Another huge smile went onto her slightly pinker face, puffing up her now significantly redder cheeks in doing so.

Both the black haired boy and pink haired girl smiled at the exchange, before returning their attention to the subject at hand. To this end, their eyes fell onto Todoroki, whom, after his uncharacteristic fit of laughter, was now back to being composed and calm, almost like it had never happened in the first place. He noticed the pair of their eyes falling on him, and he glanced between each of them before they had the chance to present the question to him.

"How about you, Todoroki?" Mina asked. "What're you gonna call yourself?"

"Freezerburn." The Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user responded simply.

His name was one that was simple, yet it captured him and his Quirk pretty much perfectly. Freezing from the right side, and burning from the left. Since he could use both sides at once, he was capable of blasting people with both fire and ice simultaneously. Since a freezerburn could also refer to a burn by ice, it was practically the perfect name for him.

"Nice." Was all Mina had to say, along with the double thumbs up with both of her hands to signal her approval of the created name. Honestly, there wasn't much else that could be said about his Hero name. It was punchy, and it got the point across. So far, it was probably the most self-explanatory one of all of their names. Finally, her head turned to she made eye contact with Izuku. "So… What about you, Midori?"

Eyes then fell on Izuku when he didn't have an answer, an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air while the four awaited an answer that Izuku just didn't have. There was a pressure on Izuku to have a good Hero name, even though it was self-imposed by Izuku himself. He was the one who had made the suggestion to become Heroes, and he was the one who had pushed everyone else past their obstacles, helped them over their hurdles, who had given himself to the world to try and better things for the Quirked, and for the Quirkless, so they could live together in harmony, if that was even possible at this point. He was supposed to be a leader, and leaders lead by example.

The rest had good names – Great names, better than ones Izuku could come up with – But he was still going to be the one that they looked to when things went wrong, when things became difficult. When they needed someone to rally behind, that was when they would look towards their leader.

A leader who didn't have a Hero name.

Of course, it was a self-imposed limitation, and it wasn't even one that really mattered, in the grand scheme of things… But it made Izuku feel almost like he'd failed. He knew he was thinking too much into it, but he just couldn't stop himself.

And naturally, the one name he had come up with was one he simply couldn't risk using.

"I…. Couldn't come up with one." He sheepishly admitted, scratching the side of his head in embarrassment. It sounded like a confession to crime more than it did to a simple lack of creative imagination. "I, uh…. I don't know. I thought about maybe using 'Deku' as my alias, but people from middle school know me by that name, so that might give me away…"

Katsuki nodded. "Those pricks would probably figure it out. We're lucky that they never saw my Quirk, just that they know that I have one. Or they'd figure out who I was in a fucking heartbeat."

"We've still got time for you to come up with one, don't we?" Inquired the horned girl.

Looking towards her now, Izuku saw her soft expression. Her lips were curled into a gentle smile, and none of her facial features seemed particularly harsh or prominent, only rested and relaxed, to convey the calmness that she clearly wanted him to feel. Like she was trying to comfort him without even doing much. Explaining exactly how he got this feeling from her would be difficult though.

Talking about how he felt about Mina would be difficult enough…

She somehow, through just a simple expression, made him feel calmer though. Like things aligned better. Like things were happening the way that they should be. This was an effect that Mina had begun to have on him in the last few days, and it was becoming more and more noticeable to him the more that he spent time with her. More that he actively seemed to seek out the ability to spend time with her, because of how relaxed he was made to feel because of her. Because of how right things felt when she was around.

Always, they felt so much better.

He was able to nod and respond to her statement without any hint of awkwardness about himself, even in site of his previous anxiety not a moment ago. "Yeah. We have some more time before then."

"Speaking of the debut." Speaking up, attention briefly shifted towards Todoroki. His attention was squarely focused on Izuku, looking to him for answers. "Do you have any plans about that? How do we make ourselves known to the city?"

While Izuku's creativity in terms of Heroic names and the likes was limited, his ability to formulate plans and strategies, to assess situations and figure out a good way to go about doing things, to plan ahead and create the best results, were fine-tuned, and virtually always active. He had indeed been thinking about how they could debut themselves to the world. And he had a very solid idea on how he wanted to go about doing it.

Turning to Katsuki, he asked a simple question. "Kacchan, how many criminals did we see on an average day before we came here?"

"Fuck if I know." His friend bluntly stated. He blinked twice, and then rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, before counting the number of major occurrences that he remembered on his fingers. "There were a shit load of them though. Con artists and dealers who trade off dangerous shit. Gangs, Quirked Hunters, those shit scum who tried to fuck with Racoon Eyes when we first met her. I don't keep a fucking tally. What difference does that make, anyway?"

"Mina, you said you ran into a lot of back alley crime dealers who used Quirks and the likes?"

"Absolutely loads." She confirmed. Plenty of dark nights and trips under the cover of that darkness caused plenty of encounters with those who operated under those same conditions, only for less savoury reasons than her own. A huge error, in retrospect. "I must have met at least thirty in Tokyo earlier in the day before I met you guys. Lots of them hung out in groups."

"These are people who are active nearly all day then. Or at least, people like them are." The leader of the group of Heroes stated, going over what he had just re-confirmed. He then bounced off of this, onto what he was thinking about the first appearance of them as Heroes. "There's always people who are going to be in alleys selling dangerous drugs, trying to scam other people, and cause trouble. Criminals that cause a huge amount of damage… they're rare, but they're getting more and more common. That being said, predicting when they're going to show up isn't something that we can really do, since Quirk activation is so random, depends on the person and their stances, if they can control themselves, and what sort of powers they end up having… But the alleyways are filled with people that we know we can handle."

They had no training. No real experience, aside from a couple of encounters. Dealing with the people who had kidnapped Katsuki a month ago, and the motorcyclists were pretty much their only real encounter with the sort of people they seriously were going to start encountering if they did this Hero stuff. They would meet some evil, psychotic and sadistic people, some who had Quirks of their own, who had always had Quirks, and knew how to use them as deadly killing weapons.

Petty criminals, on the other hand, were a dime a dozen, especially in a bigoted city like Tokyo. The single largest metropolitan city on the globe, filled to the brink with every single kind of person that could feasibly exist in the world, all bunched into a single space. Of course it would have a high crime rate, especially in this uncertain time. Those who had Quirks might have no other choice but to turn to crime, not that it was a justification. Others might employ, or in some cases, force Quirked individuals to do their dirty work for them, since their abilities made the job easier than using guns and knives. Even if they removed those who had the powers from the equation, the crime rate was still very high due to the appearance of the Quirked. Some people felt threatened, and tried to grab for them and theirs. Some used it as an excuse to lash out, while others simply used the social unrest as a smokescreen to commit other illegal acts.

So much focus on the Quirked, and the laws that were designed to keep them at bay, and the unrest it had caused, meant that the police had been neglecting lots of other sorts of crimes to focus on the growing Quirked population. So many acts unchecked…

Ripe for the new Heroes to solve.

"So, we're basically clearing up the streets?" Uraraka questioned, looking for clarification. "Like, we're gonna be cops, kind of?"

"That's what I'm thinking. Until something major happens, like a huge rampage. That'll be when we're able to show everyone in the city just what we can do."

Generating an explosion in his left palm, while simultaneously, his right fist slammed into it, Katsuki showed nothing but a huge grin. The sounds of finally getting to lash back at the cruel world seemed to have excited him. Any of his initial reservations that he had towards the concept of Heroism seemed gone now, leaving him more pumped up for their debut than anyone else in the room. "I like it. But..."

* * *

"...You know I still think you're an idiot, right?"

That night, once Uraraka, Mina, and Todoroki had gone off towards their rooms, Izuku and Katsuki had gathered up some soft drinks from the kitchens, and piled into Katsuki's room. The blondes room was filled with very little personal possessions, maybe a couple of weights that Izuku had gotten for him, and some clothes that he'd managed to grab before his parents threw him out. They didn't really have any topic in particular that they needed to discuss, nor were there any real matters that they needed to solve.

All they did was talk.

It was something that they hadn't gotten to do in quite a while, since before they had rescued Mina. Many months before they had met the girl, both of them had been busy rescuing Quirked individuals, and fighting off bigoted Quirkless people. Still, for a number of months, they hadn't actually housed anyone, leaving them with quite a bit of spare time on their hands, which they had spent just talking and trying to figure out what their futures were going to hold in this uncertain world. What Yuuei was going to be like. What they could do, should do, and what they would do. Making plans, and having dreams. Never before had the concept of using Quirks to try to become Heroes to change the perception of the world against those who had these powers been in those discussions.

Now that was their reality. That was what they had chosen to do while they were at Yuuei. In the coming days, that would be their lives. A highly illegal, dangerous, but impassioned act of vigilantism that was designed to prove that not everyone who had a Quirk hated society and wanted it to burn to the ground, or violent, volatile powder kegs stuffed with gunpowder, ready to erupt and kill everything in their paths, like the stereotypes portrayed them as.

Hell, never before had it even entered Katsuki's mind that Izuku could end up with a Quirk himself. Since these powers were starting to activate randomly within people regardless of age, there had always been a possibility, but since he came up negative on the Toe Test, it just hadn't occurred to him that his best friend would acquire one.

Then again, One For All wasn't like most other Quirks.

"You've been saying that for years." Izuku grinned, before he took a sip of the drink in front of him. Just a simple soft drink that they had acquired about ten of from the vending machines on the side of the school, turned out to be one of the most refreshing things that they had in weeks. "We made it though, didn't we?"

"Not sure if getting forced into fucking Yuuei is what I'd call 'Making it'." Katsuki took a large guzzle from his can himself, before he crushed the can in his hand, and tossed it across the room, hitting the wall, and then watching the can bounce off and fall into the garbage bin below. "I'll never understand how you thought that getting yourself into this mess was a good idea."

"I couldn't just leave you in here by yourself. You'd probably end up in fights with everyone." The black haired boy joked lightly, both of them knowing that without Izuku to reign him back in when he was going over the line, Katsuki would probably have ended up killing everyone in the building weeks ago.

The real reason was obvious though, and it didn't need to be vocally reconfirmed by the pair of them. They both knew that the real reason Izuku had gotten himself into Yuuei was because he didn't want his friend to go back to being completely on his own. He didn't have it in him to abandon someone like that, to leave them to fend for themselves, to return to feeling like it was them against the rest of the world. Even if it wound up only hurting himself in the end, he was more than happy to do it.

It was just the sort of person that Izuku was. And Katsuki knew it all too well. He knew how he thought. What he thought.

Izuku was easy to read like that.

"Deku, do me a favour and answer me something?"

"What is it, Kacchan?" The tone of the Explosion Quirk user had dropped, significantly, from one of fake anger and mild amusement, to one that was far more serious. It was something that Izuku noticed instantly, knowing full well that, whatever it was that Katsuki had to say, it was something he wanted to have a genuine, serious conversation about it.

What that conversation was to be, Izuku had had no idea, and had never expected to hear, especially not from his childhood friend.

"Are you in love with Ashido?"

Silence, for a few seconds. Not a word, not a single noise, and absolutely no movement from the green eyed boy whatsoever. He seemed stunned at the question, almost like he hadn't even heard it in the first place.

When he finally registered what was being asked of him, he rapidly exploded into a large, crimson red blush that drowned out his many freckles. He still didn't move, his limbs ceasing up as the suggestion echoed in his ears. Something that was particularly noteworthy was the fact that Katsuki had used her actual name – Not one of the nicknames that he usually gave everyone. This was a sign of respect, if not necessarily for Mina herself.

For Katsuki to suggest something like this to the person he'd known for virtually his entire life, the person that he owned everything to, it meant that he was pretty confident in what he was saying. When it came to Izuku, Katsuki knew how his mind worked. He understood the way that he thought, and finding things out from him, when he was such a terrible liar, was not a difficult thing to do at all. He couldn't keep a straight face when he lied, always looked away from the person when he had to lie, and always had a vast array of tells that outed him whenever he didn't tell the truth, with the exceptions of those lies that he knew were absolutely necessary to tell, like keeping the secret of One For All from people who didn't need to know it. He was a person who told the truth normally, and struggled to even lie out of necessity. If he didn't tell the truth, Katsuki would know.

If Izuku did possess feelings for the Acid Quirk user, speaking about her while using a name that, to some, might be considered degrading, would seem inappropriate. It was one of the few times that Katsuki took care when it came to the language that he was using, not opting to just allow his vocabulary to run wild.

Him using Mina's actual name wasn't necessarily to show her any respect, but to show it to Izuku.

"I-In l-love with h-her?!" Organizing and planning the group of five people towards becoming the first Heroes that the world had ever seen had been a huge confidence booster for the inheritor to the unique super strength Quirk. It had made him grow as a person, helping him to adapt and to become more and more self-value. His normal stammering had all but died in the last few weeks, only coming back in moments of great stress or concern, uncertainty and anxiety.

A mere suggestion about his feelings for the girl he had grown a deep friendship with, and he was back to the normal state that was Izuku Midoriya.

Lots of it actually did come from a place of uncertainty, however. There wasn't any doubt that Mina was one of his closest friends, and one that he felt a huge amount of investment in to try to help, to make better, to help overcome this unfair world. He wouldn't even begin to deny that claim, even if he had the ability to lie about something like that. He made no secret that he liked her company, and valued her friendship, and wanted her to find whatever happiness that she could in this world. He was protective of her, and wanted her to live a life where she didn't have to fear the rest of the world's opinions of her.

He wanted that for all Quirked people, absolutely…. But for Mina in particular, he felt that compulsive urge, that driving force, that thought that sparked his passion every time that he thought about it – He wanted Mina to live a better life.

There was a lot of hesitation on Izuku's part because, honestly, he didn't know what he felt towards Mina. He care for her, deeply so, like he did for all of his Quirked friends, and he wanted them all to be able to live life freely. Their desire to help create the same world that treated everyone fairly was something that he appreciated in every single one of his friends. They were all important to him… But Mina just stood out more.

Explaining why was impossible. He just couldn't do it. He didn't know what he thought about her.

"I…. Don't know?" He answered uncertainly, sort of shrugging his shoulders a little bit. When he saw the look that Katsuki was giving him, he tried to explain, just a bit more. "I just…. Mina's a really good person. One of the best that we've met. She's serious about helping out with the whole Hero thing, and she's been through so much. But she's been able to show that she can change her perspective on things, and you know how hard that is… I just…. I really don't know how to explain it, Kacchan. But… I'm not in love with her. I'm…. pretty sure I'm not."

"Not yet, or not at all?"

"…" Again, Izuku had to pause to honestly think about the question. Looking towards the ground and away from Katsuki, he just allowed his brain to unfold.

It wasn't that he honestly opposed the scenario. Mina was an amazing girl. One of the few girls in this world he honestly was comfortable being around, the other being Uraraka. The acidic girl had impacted so much of his life in such a short space of time that it blew his mind just to think about it. He didn't dislike the idea of the two of them becoming even closer than before. He didn't even dislike the idea of them being closer in a romantic scenario.

When she had broken down a few nights ago, she had clung onto him as tightly as she could, and refused to let him go, and it was one of those situations in which Izuku's head ran at a thousand thoughts a minute, with the single desire to comfort and make her feel like her old self again. Little else mattered to him that night, other than making her feel better, and there wasn't a whole lot that he wouldn't have done to do that. In the end, all that he'd done was reassure her, and hold onto her, and assure her that she was safe and that he wouldn't let anything happen to her.

He had wound up staying in her room that night due to it. Just holding her as she slept in his arms. Hr skin was soft, and her hair smelt nice, neither of which he hadn't been intentionally trying to find out, but did anyway. He hadn't missed his hearts increased rate, but it went beyond any sort of attraction to the girl. It had gone unspoken of when they both woke up the next day, but it wasn't something that Izuku had forgotten.

Quirked people who had mutations were considered ugly, disgusting freaks of nature by the majority of the Quirkless society. Rants about genetic inferiority weren't exactly uncommon, aping far right winged politics from Europe that made Izuku's skin crawl. As these movements grew, so did the sentiment. There weren't any serious biological differences that would get in the way of anything like reproduction, however. They were still Human, and comparable with any other Human, be them Quirked or Quirkless. Still, it wasn't like Izuku couldn't at least understand why some people saw those who had wild and unusual mutations as unattractive. They were a very sudden change that no one had really gotten used to yet. It wasn't an unreasonable thing to say, Izuku felt.

Personally, he had no idea what he thought. He certainly wouldn't consider Mina to be ugly in any way. That wasn't the case at all. She was just so… Bizarre was the only word that really expressed it accurately. It was just something that he hadn't really considered and he had no idea what to think about it from that perspective. Did he find her attractive? Not particularly. Did he find her repulsive? Absolutely not. The best way to say it was that he was neutral in terms of attraction towards her.

But aside from that? From an emotional stance?

That was a lot more complicated of a matter to explain. It was why he just didn't know how to explain what he felt towards her. He just didn't know. He was open to it… But he just didn't know.

"…I don't know." He finally answered, with a long winded sigh. His head was so full of conflicting thoughts and things that he had to consider, he really would just need to be alone, once a lot of what was currently going on had calmed down, and they had a routine in place. "Maybe?... We…. We've got more important things to worry about than if I like Mina or not though. W-Why did you ask, anyway?"

"I can tell you're starting to like her. I know you better than most other people do." Red eyes bounced onto the window, looking outside into the dark courtyard outside 1A's dorm building. Several guards were on the road, patrolling the place as they always tended to do. Quirkless guards, who were, for the most part, able to live a normal life. "Now not only have you screwed yourself out of a way to go back into Quirkless society, now you're falling in love with a freak."

Were Katsuki someone who possessed no powers, Izuku would have defended Mina vehemently from his language. But Katsuki was Quirked. He wasn't just talking about Mina, but also about himself. About Quirked in general. He was filled to the brink with self-loathing that manifested as anger and fury. All because of the state of the world, and how it had forced him to live.

It had robbed him, and the best person he knew, of their chance to just live. For absolutely no real reason other than bigotry.

"…Do you really think that becoming Heroes will change people's minds?" He asked, solemnly. He was on board with the idea, and still looked forward to cleaning up the streets from those who had made like the way it was. But he had to wonder….

"K-Kacchan?"

"The country has been ruled by anti-Quirked conservatives for nearly two decades, and the laws just get harsher for the Quirked, even though our numbers are growing more and more every day. Even if some people support us as Heroes…" The cynical view of the world had shown Katsuki that people weren't that easy to sway. Even if he was on board with the idea, he had to wonder… "Do you really think it'll be enough to change the entire world?"

"I don't." Izuku admitted. He wasn't delusional enough to honestly think that he was going to be able to change a thousand minds overnight, if he even managed to change a thousand at all. He wasn't going to change everyone's mind, ever. That was just the way of some things. Plenty of people would remain stuck in their ways, and there wasn't a lot he could do about that, other than be there to protect those that he could. He knew all of this…. "…But…. It's better than nothing. We'll start to see tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yeah." The black haired boy looked out the window with his friend, and made fists with his hands, tight as they would do. "We're gonna start tomorrow. We're going to start to do everything we can to change this world."

* * *

 **I'm beyond proud of the name Blitzkrieg for Katsuki. Todoroki's codename is a reference to the RWBY ship Freezerburn - I don't ship it at all, but I think it's got a pretty cool name. Infinity Girl is based on what Iida called Uraraka when they first started talking - Much better than Uravity in my opinion. And Alien Queen because, lets face it, it's ten thousand times better than frickin "Pinky"**

 **Something I feel with Katsuki is, if you took away the praise from him that he got in his childhood, he's actually be a lot more willing to accept suggestions from other people. I thought it might be a cute little idea for Uraraka to give him his Hero name. Speaking of Hero names, I'm wondering what I should call Izuku – Does anyone have any suggestions?**

 **I'm also planning on going back through First Generation and extending, improving, and rewriting the chapters, and correcting things. Not sure when that'll be, but it's on my to-do list. When I feel stable enough with Uni and money and generally living, like a regular Human being, I'll be sure to do that.**

 **And next chapter, we're finally moving onto them doing some actual Hero stuff, which is gonna be a lot of fun ^_^ I'll see you then!**


	16. Uncovering Crimes

"So… We're really doing this tonight?"

Mina felt a small bead of sweat making its way from her forehead, and down her oddly coloured skin, towards her chin, where it dangled for a moment, before falling to the ground. She knew that the day to debut was always going to come if the group was actually serious about the whole Hero thing. One day, it was always destined to evolve from just being something that they talked about and turn into something that they actively took part in. That evolution wasn't something that they couldn't put off.

They weren't just going to talk about it forever… But this was it.

It was actually happening. Talking about it was exciting, and the idea of being able to use their Quirks to actually do some good was like a fantasy. Just the thought of it was invigorating. Everyone would admit to having moments of personal daydreams where they had pictured themselves, fighting against violent Quirkless bigots, or against people who simply had no control of either their anger or their Quirks. They all imagined being Heroes. And that was consequence free. That was fun and amazing. That was enthralling and energizing.

But at those points, it was all in their heads.

To be on the verge of actually doing it now though… Mina felt her heart rate increasing, the organ thumping against her chest with increased speed and repetition, far above and beyond the normal resting pace. A mixture of a feeling of uncontrollable excitement and what she honestly felt to be dread. It all blended together into a weird feeling that could only be described as a pressurized nothingness. A feeling that was sort of similar to entering a classroom late, only magnified about seven hundred times. There was probably a better way to explain it, but the pink girl just found herself unable to articulate them.

Speaking about it was one thing… To now be on the verge of actually going through with it… That was quite another.

Izuku looked towards her from the corner of his eye. The pair of them were alone, behind the closed, locked doors of his room. It had only been a matter of nine hours since Izuku had announced to the rest of the group that he wanted to begin Hero activities once the darkness of night fell. It had been a somewhat sudden, and a rather abrupt way to say that it was time to put their money where their mouths were, and begin to act like the Heroes that they said they all wanted to be. No one opposed the idea, and they all agreed to it…. Though some might have had secret, unvoiced opinions.

Katsuki seemed totally unphased, but everyone guessed that it was because he knew beforehand, before any of them did.

For a few seconds, the freckled boy didn't say anything, simply looking at his friend before he nodded. "Yeah. I'm serious about becoming Heroes. I think…. This is the best time to do it."

Everyone had reacted to the news in a different way. While Todoroki barely emoted, or showed that he was affected in any real way, shape or form, it was clear he was just as shaken as anyone else was. His eyed had widened, and his back straightened up immediately at the news. Despite them having discussed the idea of Heroism for over a month now, it still felt too soon, in the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user's honest opinion. While he trusted Izuku's decision, and was prepared to put his faith in him, he couldn't help but feel like this was, perhaps, a mistake of sorts. He would stand by his saviour's plans, but that didn't mean that he necessarily had to agree with them.

Interestingly though, in that regard, he did keep his mouth shut, not speaking up to vocalize any concerns, or protest in any way to the plans put forth by Izuku. Maybe because he didn't want him to start second guessing himself now. Maybe because he felt Izuku was smarter than he was and had taken everything into account. Maybe because he just had that much faith in Izuku. Either way, he said nothing.

Despite having heard it before, Katsuki had shovelled his hands into his pockets when he heard the announcement all over again. While that same grin that made its way onto his face whenever the explosive boy got into a fight was present, he wasn't vocal about it at all. No explosions were set off to punctuate his enthusiasm, nor were any words spoken from him whatsoever. It was pure radio silence from him, something that was immeasurably rare when it came to someone as expressive as he was.

It said a lot about him and the state of mind that he was in. While he was eager to start to throw down against some of the worst anti-Quirk vermin out there, there wasn't any doubt in anyone's mind that he was so very concerned. Worried. Maybe even scared, though he would never show a single sign of it to anyone. It was hard to forget that Katsuki was just as affected by the cruel world just as much as anyone else. His coping mechanisms were just vastly different to the rest of the groups. He hid fear and worry with violence and foul language. That was just how he was.

Uraraka seemed to be the only person there with absolute confidence in Izuku's judgement, pumping her fists into the air, and narrowing her eyes as a response to the announcement. There didn't seem to be any hesitation from her. Perhaps from a place of admiration towards the black haired boy. Or maybe she was just thinking about the possible negative implications less, and was one of the only people there to not think too much on the negative side of things overall. Given the fact that, out of everyone there, she was the only one who had a stable upbringing with caring parents in spite of having a Quirk, this wasn't entirely surprising.

For Mina though, it had been a long day. A long day where the only thing that she had been able to think about was the night that was to come. Classes had been a long, tortuous affair, in which not a single word went into her ear. Any and all information, audible, or visual, was lost in a sea of more important worries to the horned girl. The knowledge of what was about to happen that night prevented her from even beginning to complete calculus or science notes.

"Are you scared?"

It was a simple question, but the impact that it had was solid, and hit the pink girl like a sledgehammer. If words had physical form, then she would have been slapped in the gut by those three. Not because it was unexpected, but because it had hit the nail right on the head.

Of course she was scared.

How the hell couldn't she be scared? Her entire life had been nothing but being deemed a freak by the entirety of society, abandoned by her own parents and left to rot. With her brother now at Yuuei working security, her anxieties were enhanced, sure, so that might be the culprit of that. Identifying that though changed nothing about the fact that all eyes were about to be on her, a thought that still made her stomach feel like feathers had taken place of her internal organs. All eyes were about to be judging every move she made. They would be hunting down dangerous people who had dangerous Quirks. While they no doubt would have supporters, if they turned into a success story, Mina had absolutely no doubts about one thing.

They would have people who would want them dead. Regular civilians, who saw Quirked individuals as a danger to those who didn't have powers, who would call for execution, or ruthless police force. Jaded in her history, Mina suspected that there would be all sorts of those kinds of people in that category, especially during their debut, in droves. Danger came in all sorts of forms, not just from the people they were trying to defeat.

Above all of that though… Izuku was the one who made her believe in the Quirkless again. He was the person who had brought her away from the dark side of herself. He was the person who had shown time and time again that he was a person of honour, of understanding. He was her friend. Her inspiration. In that sense, this was something that meant so much to her… But it was an illegal activity. A crime, by law of interfering with the progression and adherence of law.

Vigilantism.

Of course she was scared of the results of if they got found or caught. And what would that bring the Quirked overall?

Stigma. Hatred. Discrimination. Prejudice. Anger... More pain, judgement, and calls for restrictions on those born with Quirks. Fury and strife would be theirs, their names in the history books as those whom acted in such a way that the entire world was seethed in conflict afterwards.

And to them?... What would happen to them?...

It might be a dramatic reaction, built on nothing more than an overactive imagination… But…

Who wouldn't be scared? Of the consequences? To both themselves, and the Quirked as a whole?...

Looking up at Izuku, her black and gold eyes met his green ones, to see the same sort of anxiety and worry within himself. While his eyes were half closed, and his eyebrows were curled upwards, he seemed to be able to give her a soft smile of reassurance. There was a softness to it, one that Izuku didn't have it in him to show when in front of the others. Perhaps the only person who saw this soft, tender side of him anymore was the pink haired girl.

He was their leader. The person who everyone followed, even though he hadn't wanted to be in a traditional position of leadership and power. His motivation, dreams of a better world, vision, and his refusal to give up on the state of the world, to just abandon it to sort itself out. His adamant refusal to accept that this was the way of the world. His refusal to abandon his friends, and his honest belief that, if they did this, they could change the minds of a great number of people. Everyone just gravitated towards him, and wanted to help him to achieve the goals that he had. Now that he had that burden.

Without even meaning to, they had put so much terrible pressure onto him….

"Yeah… Me too." He admitted, still with that smile on his face. It was contradictory to what he was saying, but he kept up that smile, even though, now that Mina was looking at him closer now, she saw his hands were shaking. "In comics, in manga, in TV shows… Heroes aren't supposed to be scared, are they? They're supposed to be full of confidence, and incredibly brave… But it's not like that at all in real life, is it? Heroes aren't supposed to be scared… We're supposed to become the first actual Heroes in the world tonight…"

Looking towards her face on, Mina saw every detail that his face held. How shaky that smile was, and how his eyes seemed to be duller than they normally were. There was very clear shaking going throughout his body, and his eyes were slightly wider than they should have been normally. The bags under his eyes – The result of many long, sleepless nights as they all prepared their equipment and costumes – Seemed much darker and larger than before.

"…And I'm terrified." No matter what though, his smile didn't leave his face. "Since those new laws outright banned Quirk use in public, the number of arrests of Quirk uses has skyrocketed, even if they used their powers in self-defence. Any sense of justice is basically gone when it comes to Quirked… So if we get caught… We're looking at a life sentence, or even the death penalty."

The world was changing so much these days, with the government and the population just wanting Quirks out of the picture as much as possible. The reason for it was down to just pure, cold prejudice, and they weren't even trying to hide it now. Quirks were feared. Quirked were feared. With Yuuei finally open, those fears didn't seem to subside, but magnified into more and more vigour against them.

Protesters now appeared outside the gates of Yuuei every single day, waving signs around and chanting mantras that attacked the Quirked. Police and guards, one of which was Mina's brother, held back the protesters whenever students attempted to leave the building, for food and other basic survival needs, or to act on the most basic of freedoms that Human beings had. Izuku liked to call it the height of the age of the extraordinary, when more and more people were developing Quirks than before, at a much faster rate. The natural response was to try and keep them suppressed. To keep things the way they were for as long as possible. To cling to their governmental power for as long as they could.

Heroes jumping around and fighting other people with Quirks... There was no real way to gauge the response that they would get from such actions. More than likely, the government wouldn't consent to it… Tonight was destined to be dangerous. Every night they did this was destined to be dangerous. And failure could end up killing them.

Even in spite of all that though, which Izuku knew from the beginning… He kept his smile on his face, even when it looked strained and painful.

"…So why are you smiling?"

The smile that he had on his face was on the borderline creepy side itself, with how much he was trying to maintain it. Clearly, doing so was straining his skin, but he just wouldn't let it go, determined to get through what he wanted to say with a smile.

"Because… Heroes are supposed to smile when faced with danger, aren't they? They're supposed to reassure people. They're supposed to be able to say 'It's okay', right? Even when it's scary."

"You've got an odd way of dealing with nerves, Midori." The anxious girl joked lightly, in an effort to lighten up the depressingly grim mood that was drowning the room. If smiling helped him fight through all the fear that he had in his heart, then she wasn't going to judge or complain about it towards him, even if it did make her feel uncomfortable. Everyone had their own way of dealing with nerves. Hers was to just try to relax, to try not to overthink things, even if she did end up failing miserably.

They could have prepared for another year or ten, and she'd still be this nervous. That just came with the nature of the things that they were doing. Anyone would be scared. This was a new venture that no one had gone down before, so uncertainty and fear laid down the path for the group, no matter how much they prepared themselves.

It was admirable that Izuku, in spite of his own admitted fear, was still going strong, despite probably having the most pressure up against him. If the idea failed, then the failure would be on him. He was the one supposedly leading them all down this path. It was his idea in the first place… They all trusted him.

The last thing that he wanted to do was make them feel their trust was misplaced this whole time.

He knew all of this. But he still kept on trying to hold everyone together, through grinning past the nervousness that ran through him. To try and keep everyone calm, even if it wasn't having that effect at all. He was at least trying.

Tonight, they would be Heroes.

And that was both scary, and exhilarating at the same time.

* * *

The group met in Izuku's room at ten at night that day, changed into their costumes, and prepared themselves. The black haired boy was going over the plans he had written down, before he would present them to his group. He ended up leaving the room, claiming that there was something that he wanted to check out before they went ahead with the plan. Something that he felt would be of much better use to them all, and would make their lives a lot easier if his hunch was correct.

Everyone else was cramped into a room that was really not designed to have four people in it at once. Everyone was in a rather close proximity to one another, and they had to shuffle and bend and turn to be able to even walk from one side of the room to the other. Of all the rooms in the dorm, Izuku's was one of the largest ones, by sheer chance, but that still didn't mean that four people could be even remotely slightly comfortable in there at once. It almost felt like a pen for animals, all shoved into one place.

An accurate analogy for Yuuei, now that the pink girl thought about it.

There wasn't a whole lot they could say to one another that wouldn't just be echoing what they were all thinking. It was a heavy, sombre mood, which felt oppressive in its nature, and deafening, even without noise. No one was sure what to say, but at the same time, they were all desperate to talk. The silence was adding to the atmosphere, making them all feel like they were drowning in anxiety. Like soldiers about to be shipped off to war, being shoved into vehicles for ground deployment somewhere in some war torn hell-hole.

All that was actually making noise in the room was the ticking of Izuku's clock, which he hung from his wall, just above his door, and the breathing of everyone within it. The window was open, to allow cool air to filter in and keep the room at a bearable temperature, otherwise everyone's breath would make the room hot like a sauna, which in turn would make everyone sweaty and irritable, more so than they already were. The curtains were closed though, so no one who passed by would happen to see them, occasionally bellowing from the smallest gusts of wind that hit them. A few crickets could be heard from outside, and the actual wind itself did make the odd whistle once in a while, but it almost added to the silence. The absolute lack of Human activity, within or outside of Izuku's room, was what made everything seem so quiet.

Even Katsuki was holding onto his tongue. He was just allowing himself to be psyched up, taking in a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds, and then exhaling for another few seconds. It was like he was just meditating, which was the last thing that Mina ever expected someone like Katsuki to ever do.

That just spoke volumes about the sort of feeling in the room though.

Incidentally, this was the first time that she had seen everyone else's Hero costumes. She'd caught glimpses of Katsuki's when she went to go and talk to Uraraka and they had discussed their feelings towards the originally Quirkless and Explosion Quirk users respectively, but she'd never seen him actually wearing the costume itself. Of everyone there, his was probably the flashiest. The most obvious part of it was the giant flare-like mask that he wore around his eyes, which sported two large appendages that came from the back of his head, modelled after explosions. If his goal was to try and make his costume intimidating, he was already off to a good start.

Outside of this, his attire was somewhat minimalist, almost comically so compared to her own. He wore a tank-top, which left his arms totally exposed, showing off his impressive array of muscles around his shoulders and biceps, and was low cut down his chest, also muscular in physique. The tank-top had a large red coloured diagonal cross down the centre of it, though this only existed at the front of it, otherwise it was totally black. A red and green belt was what he used to keep a set of black, baggy tracksuit pants from falling down. His feet were covered by what used to be originally completely black, steel-tipped military grade boots. With alterations from Uraraka, the soles were now red, along with several dots where shoelaces would normally go along the front. Instead of laces, however, Uraraka had designed a magnetic system, in which Katsuki would pull the straps on his boots towards a northern magnet, while said straps had a southern magnet inside them. He then had total freedom to control the tightness of the boots around his feet. This left a couple of inches of straps to dangle though, but it was fine.

Unlike Mina's, there was no practicality towards his costume, other than appearance. Hers was designed to allow her to move undetected, and to utilize her Quirk through methods that would otherwise give her away, were she without it. Aside from being extremely durable, there was nothing to help him utilize his Quirk better. Then again, she supposed, with a Quirk like his, finding a way to design something to make the most of his powers would be difficult. How he would even get a hold of something like that was beyond her.

Todoroki's costume was a very simple design. Almost as basic as someone could get. He wore a blue jumpsuit, customized with a belt that, within its various compartments, held a medical surplus, such as antibiotics and first aid supplies, which would be useful when it came to helping someone who had an injury that they needed to treat. He also wore a silver coloured combat vest, though this only protected his back. In addition, he also had white boots, similar to those that Katsuki wore. The feature that would help him hide his identity was the fact that he wore a hood over his head, which would help to hide his multi-coloured hair. For further protection, he also wore a balaclava, meant to hide his burn mark, and as added security in case his hood failed him.

Everything in his costume was designed with a special material that he had requested Yaoyorozu to make for him. She had gotten used to creating materials for various members of the dorm since she had helped Izuku, and it didn't seem to be something that she minded doing. He had taken advantage of that fact, and had requested something that let him use his Quirk without worrying about it getting burned or waterlogged, and would react accordingly to his body temperature, heating him up as his body temperature fell, and vice versa. Izuku had that crafted that into a full jumpsuit and balaclava set, which let Todoroki utilize his powers without worrying about destroying whatever he wore.

Finally came Uraraka, who probably had the most practical outfit of everyone. A black and pink jumpsuit, with various points throughout it, which hit her pressure points, which she claimed would lower her queasiness from overuse of her Quirk. It was about as basic as someone could get, but it was also arguably, the most practical one aside from Mina's herself. Her helmet was a one-way looking sheet of plastic, tinted pink in its colour, which covered up her face. It left her brown hair exposed, but brown hair wouldn't give her away. It was one of the most common hair colours on the planet, unlike Mina's and Todoroki's, with Quirk mutations affecting what would have previously been natural hair colours.

Mina's own was such an example of Quirks doing this to people. She ran a finger through her own unkempt mess of a do as she thought about this.

Seeing everyone like this made it all feel real, finally, to the horned girl. That they really, really were going to do this. Until this moment, the day had been a miasma of thinking and uncertainty, part of her thinking that she was just going crazy, and imagining all of this happening. It still felt so alien. So bizarre. So out there.

Civilization just hadn't adapted to Quirks. The idea that Quirks could even be used for such good was just a thought that had never occurred to Mina before. The idea that powers could be useful to some, could be used to protect people… It just hadn't ever clicked. Never registered. With society telling her constantly that she was a freak and worthless, the thought that she could now be doing something to help those who needed it, powered or not…

It almost felt like defying the natural order of the world. Hence why she was still scared. Why she knew everyone else was just as scared.

At the same time though, being surrounded by others who were prepared to face this world, and take it head on, made her feel better. Braver, and safer, merely by being within their proximities. Perhaps it was the herd mentality in Humans that told them safety was within numbers. Perhaps it was because she was just surrounded by people who were in the same boat as her, told they were lower than dirt for the powers they had no control over having. Maybe it was the fact that she was surrounded by friends.

Whatever the reason was, she felt like she could face her fears here. Whatever the outside world was going to throw at them, they could handle it. They were going to be able to face it. They were going to be the very first Heroes, and they were going to show the world that Quirks were just as much a force for good as they were for evil. They were…

They were…

They…. They…

"….You know, I just realized something." Mina said suddenly, without even taking the silent, sombre mood of the room into account. Within less than a second, every single pair of eyes in the room were now focused on the Acid Quirk user, waiting to hear what she was going to say next.

Immediately, Mina felt herself have a bout of stage fright – While normally she was carefree, and social situations such as this rarely tended to bother her, this one felt like she was being judged by a court of law. Without even thinking, she had opened her mouth and broken the painful silence, though now it had fallen onto her to carry the new conversation with it.

She hadn't expected it, and it threw her off her game for a moment.

"What is it?" Luckily, Todoroki seemed to recognise that she had found herself slightly overwhelmed by everyone, and offered her a few words of inquiry.

Now that someone else had actually spoken, Mina felt herself become able to relax a bit more. Internally she questioned if this was how the socially awkward felt. Outwardly, she finally managed to make her statement. "We don't even have a Team Name."

"A Team Name?" Katsuki raised an eyebrow underneath his costume, giving the pink girl a puzzled luck. "What the hell is that supposed to be?"

"Like a name that we use to introduce our group! That we're all collectively known as. C'mon, like they do in comics! Like, 'The Defenders' or 'The Vindicators' or whatever! You lived with freakin' Midori for nearly a year, how do you not know about this kind of thing?" The pink girl grinned, standing up and throwing her arms open, nearly hitting the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user in the face, missing him by about three inches. "All sorts of groups have names! Think about it! If we end up being famous of something, do we really wanna let the media decide our name for us?"

"They will decide a name for us if we don't choose one ourselves." Todoroki flatly stated, catching the attention of everyone there. Everyone remembered that his father was one of the more famous TV news anchors in the country right now, particularly when it came to Quirked matters, so his views, statements and perspectives were worth taking note of. He understood how his father thought. "It won't be flattering."

Especially when it came to how his father and the media reported on Quirked matters. Sensationalism was common in this age, reporters eager to get hold of whatever stories would sell the most newspapers, get the most website clicks, bring in the most viewers and make as many people tune into the radio as possible. Fear mongering, therefore, was a common tactic used in news articles and journalism. Whatever it took to get people to pay attention to the news in whatever capacity, and damning those who needed to be damned in order to get those stories published and attracting the readers.

Quirks sold. News about the horrible things Quirks were used for sold even better.

Todoroki knew this far too well. "Give the media the chance, and they'll give us a group name that suggests we want to beat up anyone who doesn't have a Quirk. Whatever it takes to sell a story." He scoffed in bitterness, his own experiences with the unethical world that was ruled by his own father still fresh in his mind, despite not having seen the man in person in close to over ten years.

Or having seen his mother, either. Though he held just as negative an opinion towards her as he did his father. He was a bitter person when it came to his blood relatives, but absolutely had the past to justify the way he was, and the things he felt. If there was one person he wouldn't ever trust the word of, it was going to be his father.

"It'd be smart if we identified ourselves under a group name." He carried on telling the other three teenagers. "Otherwise, we're going to wind up being known as the Quirkless Killers. If we name ourselves, then we take that ability away from them. It's one less weapon that they can use to try and demonize us."

Hearing all of this, Katsuki allowed himself to nod, convinced of the merits of making up a group name. "Yeah. Okay. So what the fuck do we call ourselves?"

No one was able to make any suggestions though, before the door to the room creaked open. For the briefest of moments, everyone froze, the possibility of it being someone other than Izuku racing in their minds, unlikely as it was that someone other than him would try to enter the room. Katsuki and Todoroki in particular had their hands at the ready, prepared to unleash their powers if they had to against whatever intruder might be behind the door.

Thankfully, this proved to be nothing but justifiable paranoia, as the one behind the door was none other than Izuku. Unlike everyone else though, he hadn't changed into his costume, and still was within the Yuuei school uniform, minus the tie around his neck. He seemed to notice the jittery disposition of his friends, and quickly threw his hands up in in front of him in a small mock surrender. "It's just me guys."

"Deku." Katsuki let out a small sigh, before standing up and glaring towards his friend. "Where the fuck've you been?"

"I found a safer way for us to get out of here." Izuku revealed with a grin. When he looked at everyone in their costumes though, his smile turned awkwardly lopsided, and he began to scratch his left cheek with the corresponding hand. "Though… You're gonna need to change into your school clothes again."

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?"

"Uh…. No. Jirou and Yaoyorozu are in the main living room. I think they're having a date night, movie night, or something like that. They're using the TV, so they probably won't notice us. They didn't notice me walking around… But I don't think it's smart to walk around in costume while in the dorms."

Groans and moans filled the room, though everyone did as they were instructed, even though it was irritating to have to do. None of them left to go to their own rooms – They couldn't travel throughout the building while in costume, so they had piled into one room to change into their costumes in the first place anyway.

Two of them would go to one side of the room and cover their eyes, while the other two changed. The pairs were done by biological gender, so no one got an eyeful of anything tasteless. It took about five minutes in total for everyone to change back into their school uniforms, scruffy and barley done up correctly at all. The majority of them were barely passable, with maybe the exception of Todoroki, whom had straightened out his uniform quickly, and without much issue.

"Is everyone alright?" Izuku questioned from outside the room. He had been acting as lookout, and had also opted to remain outside to allow his friends more room to change. Thankfully, no one else walked down the corridor, many apparently deciding to take it easy at this time at night.

The only real obstacle, if one could even call it that, would be Jirou and Yaoyorozu. The path to where Izuku was leading them was right behind them, and in a straight line into the stairwell. Unless they made enough noise to disturb them, they would be fine.

"Yeah, we're okay…Just… Lemme out… Of… Here!" Mina responded, pushing the door open and almost falling into the open space that was the hallway, taking in a number of deep breaths once she was outside of her crushes room. Being stuffed in there with so many other people had made her feel claustrophobic, even though she didn't suffer from such a condition.

One by one, the others made their way out of the room as well, stretching and clicking their bones as they finally had the space to move once again. They had been cramped in the room for only maybe ten minutes, but to them, it felt like it had been a lot longer. The apprehension and worry that was within their heads about the whole situation were factors in making the passage of time feel like a slow, painful crawl. Getting out of that room felt like coming back to life for the young Heroes, since they now had the ability to stand up in a single spot without hitting someone else.

With all his friends outside the room, Izuku stepped forward and locked it with his keys. He then turned around and looked at everyone, seeing that all of their eyes were on him. Each one of them kept their Hero Costume within a briefcase that they had acquired, and stuffed in the clothing the best they could. Actually getting everything put together and ready to be worn again, especially in Uraraka's case, where she had to disassemble her entire helmet and reassemble it when she wanted to actually use it, took up valuable time. Just having to spend more time to get everything sorted out was irritating.

It was mostly countered though, by curiosity. What had Izuku figured out that made changing back into their uniforms worthwhile?

"Okay, follow me." Instructed the green eyed boy, leading the group down the corridor, towards the central living quarters.

Aside from the sounds of the TV in the living area, the dorm seemed totally silent, almost like it was devoid of any life at all. Most people retired to their rooms by nine o'clock, though occasionally, some would stay active around the building for much longer, though apparently not tonight. Part of that could possibly be due to Jirou and Yaoyorozu's presence in the living room that night. Maybe they had requested that they be left alone, and their dorm had respected their wishes.

Whatever the reason was for the lack of other people, Izuku had decided that they needed to take advantage of it. He poked his head around the corner, to see if both the Creation Quirk user and the Earphone Jack Quirk user were still there. They were, although both were laying down, and focused either on one another, or the television. From the angle that they were at, he couldn't tell.

Either way, that meant that they weren't focused on them. And that was fortunate – Seeing all five of them walking around while everyone else was supposedly resting in their rooms, carrying five suitcases filled to the brim with clothing? It was going to look suspicious.

Careful not to make any noise of any kind, and to tread as lightly as possible, Izuku led everyone to the other side of the room, down to a separate corridor. It was a straight line from the one they were already in, moving just behind the sofa that the two girls were laying on. When the five teens glanced at the television screen, they saw that the two were watching some sort of horror romantic comedy… Thing. It was from before Quirks had manifested into a noticeable number within the population, of which Mina recognised. She was certain that she'd seen it while her father was watching his movies, but she couldn't remember the name of the film to save her life.

As she passed by the couch, she managed to catch a glimpse of the two girls. Jirou was the one on top, using Yaoyorozu as a pillow of sorts, resting her head on the taller girl's chest. Both had their faces towards the screen, engrossed in their film. Primarily, Mina just had a single question.

When the hell had those two started dating? When had that happened?

The group quickly ended up at the staircases, where Izuku began to lead them upwards, towards the rooftop. It was at this point that eyebrows began to rise. No one had actually been onto the rooftops, since the doors were always locked, and there was next to no reason to even bother going up, since there was nothing to do up there.

Following him up though, they all found that Izuku had scouted the area previously, and had found that the door onto the roof was, in fact, very much open.

"Normally, the roof just gets accessed when there's something interfering with the signals up here. But I guess the technician didn't care much when he came up here last time." Izuku explained, holding the door open, revealing the rooftop of the Height's Alliance 1A building. "The door was left unlocked. So I figured that it would be smarter to change into Hero costumes up here rather than trying to climb out the veranda of my room. Plus, we should be able to jump over the wall from up here."

Mina stepped out onto the rooftops, and was met with an immediate gust of cold air hitting her skin. The building was roughly five stories tall, so they were up quite a distance from the ground below them. The dorms all were in a U shape, with two wings that split off from one another after the second floor. Atop the building was a small stationary hut, that was probably used by some of the builders for storage during the construction stages, and for shelter. Right now, it had been repurposed as a utility room for the technicians, though there was little reason for them to come here. The building was supplied its electricity, internet and cable via underground cables, abandoning satellite connection in favour of efficiency. Despite the school being run, designed to be a prison essentially for those who had Quirks, the teachers and staff of Yuuei were still Quirked themselves, and wanted to be able to provide some comfort features for their students.

"How did you even find this stuff out?" The Acid girl questioned, looking back towards the curly haired boy, while trying to keep her pink hair from hitting her black eyes.

"I heard the door slamming open and closed because of the wind earlier today." He briefly explained. "I didn't get a chance to check until classes had ended. I went to go and check on it when you guys had arrived, because I thought it would be safer for you all to change… But you already had when I came back. Honestly, I just found it through luck."

As Todoroki joined them on the roof, Izuku shut the door, and used several nearby bricks to lodge it completely shut, so the wind would be unable to make the door open and shut again, which may alert someone to its malfunction. How exactly no one had discovered this doors terrible fitting before them was something that Izuku was just thankful for, and didn't feel the need to question. He was just glad that fate had given them a free pass on this one.

"We can change in the utility shed." He pointed out once he'd made sure the door was secure. As he walked over, he explained his planning to everyone. "You two girls should change first, while we keep an eye out. I want to go over a couple of things with Kacchan and Todoroki. Once you're done, we'll head in and change, and after that, I'll let you know what I'm thinking."

Both Mina and Uraraka nodded at the suggestion, and made their way over towards the utility room, quickly escaping from the cold wind and into an equally cold, but wind-proof concrete square. There was little in terms of light in the room, with no light switches available, causing them to instead rely on the moonlight to see. From what little that they could see, the shed hadn't been used in some time. Various bits of equipment, like shoves, pickaxes and work tools such as spanners and hammers were lined on the shelving, but had no owner come to perform maintenance on them, probably since the beginning of the year.

Several cobwebs, home of spiders thankfully small in their size, were littered in the corners, and no small amount of dust coated just about everything in small space. Just enough room for Uraraka and Mina to change at the same time, though they both wondered how on earth the guys were going to be able to do so with three of them in the shed at once.

Neither of them wasted any time in getting dressed up into their Hero attire, rapidly fitting into their clothes for the second time that day. Mina had stripped down, and gotten dressed up again in less than two minutes, while Uraraka was moving at a similar level, though her helmet was what was giving her the most trouble. It fit together like Lego, slotting into place perfectly. The downside was, in low visibility, it made it hard to find all the angles that things needed to fit together.

"Come on…." The Zero Gravity Quirk user muttered, shifting a piece of plastic in her hands, and trying to insert it into another slot, but failing in doing so. "I can't see anything like this…"

"We should head out then." Mina suggested, folding her arms in an effort to preserve some body heat. Skin tight her costume was, by her own design and preference, though she hadn't accounted for how cold it could actually made her. She suspected that was probably the reason that Uraraka hadn't already suggested getting up and heading out – she wanted to try and keep herself warm as much as she could. "Let the guys get dressed. You'll probably have more light out there than in here too."

She sighed, but the brown haired girl nodded, and stood up. Opening the door once again, another blast of chilly wind hit the pair of them. Being so high up, the levels of wind increased dramatically, stealing the breath from both the teenage girls once they faced it.

It was something that they knew they were going to have to get used to. Tonight was particularly bad for wind anyway, so they knew it wasn't like it was going to be like this every night.

"Yo, guys, we're done!" Mina called over towards the group, measuring her voice so that it wouldn't be too loud, but was loud enough so that the boys would be able to hear her.

Looking away from the two of his friends, Izuku gave both the girls a look of surprise. "That was fast."

"We've got stuff to do, haven't we?" Mina said, giving him a satisfied little grin. "I hope you've got a plan ready for tonight, Mr. Hero."

"I'll go over everything once we're back." The One For All Inheritor responded, before picking up his own costume in a case, and heading towards the shed, along with Katsuki and Todoroki.

Once the two had left, Mina took a seat on the edge of the rooftop, allowing her legs to hang off of the side, next to her struggling friend, as she attempted to put her helmet together. From up here, she could see all of the lights in Tokyo shine and flicker. Car headlights travelled down roads and busy crossroads, disappearing and reappearing behind buildings. Skyscrapers still stood tall, visible for miles around, lights from the higher floors acting like lighthouses, only for the inland.

Civilisation stared back at the black eyed girl. Behind the inherent wonder and splendour of seeing what Humanity was capable of, she knew that people, the same people who built entire cities like Tokyo, who crafted amazing buildings that touched the clouds, were equally capable of destroying those they had a distaste for. They were equally capable of destruction as they were at creation. At capable hatred as much as love, as eager to fight a war as they were to live in peace. The city reminded her of all the discrimination that she had suffered throughout her life. It was always in big clusters of buildings filled with Quirkless that the discrimination was the worst. Numerous people harassing and mocking her, trying to kick her out, drive her away, or outright try to hospitalize her.

Here she was, about to charge right in and use her Quirk to try and protect those same people. Things certainly did change, she thought to herself. The world certainly was an ever changing one… One that they all had to do their bit to try and fix, before the damage done was irreprehensible.

"Hey, did you know about Jirou and Yaoyorozu getting together?" Uraraka suddenly questioned, finally managing to construct a couple of pieces of her helmet together. Now that she had a basis to work with, fitting the rest of the helmet together was like figuring out a jigsaw with only a few pieces left to complete the image with. "The first I'd ever heard of it was from Izuku earlier."

Being brought back to the current moment, Mina looked towards her rosy cheeked friend, and then shook her head. "No, I uh, I hadn't heard anything about it either. I mean, I knew they were friends, but that was about it. It's actually really cute."

"Yeah…. But it's also kind of depressing."

Mina blinked at her friend, who had just finished sliding the final piece of her helmet together. "How so?"

With a small sigh, Uraraka looked towards the skyscrapers Mina herself had been watching not just a few seconds ago. "I mean… When I was growing up, there was this guy I liked back home." She revealed. "Everyone in my home town knew that I had a Quirk, but it was helpful to a lot of them. Use my Quirk, and I can lift up a car so mechanics can do their jobs easier. Lifting a lot of heavy tuff in no time at all. So, people generally accepted my powers. I mean, there were exceptions, but for the most part, I was okay… And there was this one person I had a crush on…"

She seemed to be pained by the memory, even to this day. She seemed to flinch when she recalled what was said to her.

"…He said to me 'Quirked should only be with Quirked'. Apparently, I was being too especial compared to him. He said that he wanted someone who was… On his level." She swallowed down a lump in her throat, and let out an even longer sigh than before. "The way he said it… He wasn't talking about him feeling like he was below me… He was saying that he didn't think Quirked and Quirkless people could mix like that. Like those of us who had powers were some kind of different species entirely. And… Well… He's right. A lot of Quirkless people are terrified of Quirks. Really, the only chance we have, romantically, is someone else who had a Quirk… And that's not even a full percentage of the planet. Or even a percent or a percent. I suppose I find it sad because, assuming that they didn't love each other, which they probably do, since, y'know, they're together… It wouldn't be like they had many other options open to them anyway. It's… Part of why I came here. To get away from that sort of thinking."

Uraraka was commonly credited as being one of the few people in all of Yuuei that had a perfect upbringing, housed and fed by parents who loved her, and attending the school out of her own free will. She was the envy to a lot of people in her class for that reason, many thinking that she had lived a life without pain or heartache.

Evidentially, this wasn't true though. It might not have been the same sort of hell that everyone else had been through… But Mina could tell, it affected her just the same. She was never outright discriminated against… But people around her still felt that she was different.

It wasn't hard to see how she had come to that sort of conclusion. That the sight of two Quirked people, who may very well be in love, being together, just reminded her of that fact. It wasn't hard to understand why it upset her.

"S-Sorry." She stammered, trying to put on a fake, plastic smile towards the pink girl. "I uh, I know that it mustn't sound like anything particularly bad compared to what you had to go through."

"It's alright." The horned girl shook her head, dismissing the apology altogether. "You don't need to be sorry… Do Bakugou and Midori know?"

Shaking her head, Uraraka dismissed the notion. "No. Todoroki does though. We both lived in the dorms for a lot longer than you guys did. We spoke pretty often. It just kind of… Came out one time."

"What did he say?"

"He didn't say anything. I think I kind of overwhelmed him." With another soft smile, Uraraka looked down to the ground below. "I know I shouldn't complain. Everyone else has had such a hard time… I never told those two because… They always have so much going on, I didn't want to make them worry about me on top of things. Katsuki and Deku are such incredible people… I want to be able to do anything that I can to help them out. I don't wanna be a burden to them.."

"…Yeah." Mina could only nod in agreement, feeling the exact same way. Her problems were worthless in the face of everything else, and compared to Izuku's drive, his ambition, what he wanted to achieve, and what he wanted to do… She barely even had a problem.

That was how she felt, at least. Izuku was someone she genuinely just wanted to help, and wanted him to have as distractions as possible on the road to becoming the Hero that she knew that he was going to become. That she knew he was going to become.

She wanted to help. That was why she was even wearing this costume, even in spite of her own nerves going haywire.

"Alright, we're back!"

Behind them, Izuku, Katsuki and Todoroki were all suited up, ready for the hell of a day night that they had in front of them. Izuku had finally gotten into his Hero costume, and the simplicity of it wasn't at all a surprise to Mina.

A dark green unitard that was composed of a number of lines that ran along his legs, arms, and torso, black in their colour. He wore a set of white gloves, designed to protect his hands, detailed with numerous scars that might give him away to someone who was observant to an incredible degree. Wrapped around his neck was a face protector, cut into the shape of a smile that would reach his ears. Around his eyes was another mask, similar to one that Mina was wearing, only his was totally black. From around the back of his head, there was a hoodie, which he would pull up over his head to conceal his hair, so his green highlights wouldn't be on display. He mentioned something about getting rid of the highlights once he grew his hair out, which disappointed Mina. She liked them, but understood why he would be concerned about them.

He didn't look like a Hero. At least, not like how Heroes were supposed to look like, if comics and movies were anything to go by. Heroes were traditionally supposed to have capes, and bold, bright colours. Then again, none of them really did. They mostly either looked like they had come straight out of a failed cosplay attempt, or like they were thugs, looking for trouble.

They were designed more towards the practical purpose of concealing their identities at this moment. Maybe if all went well, they could improve their costumes, for increased function and aesthetic appeal.

Both the girls got onto their feet and joined the boys, forming a small circle so that they could all see one another. Izuku pulled out, from his pocket, a folded up piece of A4 paper, which he then opened and showed everyone. On it, a rough sketch of an alleyway on the outskirts of Tokyo.

"Okay… So, I mentioned that there are a lot of crooks in Tokyo." He explained, taking a second to take a deep breath when he realizes that this was finally happening. "And it's true… There's a lot of people out there who try to take advantage of the fear in society right now. I… Did some research into some of the crime that's going on in that area… And from what I've found out, there's a group of people who are selling some kind of drug that's supposed to suppress Quirks in people. At least for a while."

Katsuki just blinked a couple of times, before scoffing. "How the hell do you suppress a Quirk? Aside from scruff-sensei's Erasure, I guess."

"Is it even possible? Aren't Quirks supposed to be a biological component?" Mina inquired, looking at her own skin. "You can't just get rid of a Quirk, can you?"

"I mean, One For All is a Quirk that passes itself along." The current holder of said Quirk stated. "And I know that there was a Quirk called All For One, which let the user steal Quirks. It rendered the user totally Quirkless, while the owner of All For One got hold of the Quirk. We don't know a lot about what Quirks really are. They seem to be biological components, like muscles, but they also seem to be capable of being stolen or, if this is accurate, crippled. Like a possession more than a part of a person."

"Okay, so?" The next question came from Todoroki. "If people want to hide from the public, I don't see what the issue is. That's what you and Bakugou did."

"If that was it, it wouldn't be a problem…" Izuku explained. "The drug apparently causes a total shutdown of the users Quirk… But it's only temporary. When it comes to Mutation type Quirks, it doesn't do anything, and it's very expensive, according to what I've seen… And it's pretty harmful. I've heard stories about them mixing the stuff with bleach and rat poison."

"Why the hell would they do that?!" the Acid Quirk user asked, shaken. she had seen horrible things during her time as a drifter, but never that. Perhaps she had just been lucky enough not to see that sort of disregard towards people. "That literally makes no sense! What would they gain from doing that?!"

"They won't care." Katsuki simply stated. "If it makes it look like there's more of the drug, they'll put whatever in with it. They're just regular fucking dealers, only they're targeting people who are desperate to have normal lives…" In particular, Katsuki seemed enraged by the idea of this going on. His palms seemed to emit a smoke, as they began to heat up along with his rage. "Are we just going to fucking figure out what's going on and stop it? Is that our first mission?"

Izuku then took a moment to look at each one of his friends, each of them looking right back at him. He felt a huge amount of pride, pride that he would never be able to articulate. Gratitude he'd never be able to express, and confidence in each and every one of them. He knew that they could do this. Even if it was dangerous, insane, or down to them all just having massive egos. They could do this.

He knew they could.

"Yeah. That's the plan. Uraraka." He pointed towards his brown haired friend. And held up some rope in his other hand that he had brought from the utility shed. "I want you to make everyone weightless. Then we'll use my Quirk to leap away, and that should get us towards the city. We'll use this rope to tie us all together."

"Got it."

* * *

"A pleasure doing business with you."

It was just as Izuku had pointed out – Predicting when someone who had a Quirk was going to strike and start to lash out against the streets and those who inhabited them was impossible. Human or Quirked, people weren't that easy to read. Every person had a different personality, different values, and a different perspective on the way of the world. On top of that, there were as many possibilities for Quirks as there were numerous personalities in the world.

No two people reacted to developing a Quirk the same. Some might love the power, either driving themselves crazy and be driven by a lust for more of it, or would simply be enamoured by its virility and usefulness, while others would feel a compulsive urge to die, to end their lives before they brought shame on those around them by being discovered. Those were only a few small examples as well. For every Quirk, there was a person, and behind every person, was a different creature, that no one would be able to predict.

Without the power to see into the future, Izuku and his team would never be able to know when the next big rampage would go down, or if they were even capable of dealing with such a threat. While stopping a rampaging maniac would certainly be an effective way to introduce themselves to the rest of the world, waiting for one such rampage wasn't going to help their cause. If they were serious about doing this, then they needed to start tackling things now.

Making a name for themselves now, and then proving that they weren't just all talk.

Tokyo was infested with criminals since the age of Quirks struck. Since the first abilities had started appearing just a short time ago, the number of violent crimes increased dramatically, in both Quirked users, and Quirkless people. In the case of those who had powers, many felt like they could now get away with committing crimes and illegal acts by utilizing their newfound abilities. This method of thinking was particularly common with those who developed their powers later in life, now that a whole realm of possibilities were now open to them that hadn't been beforehand. For the last twenty years, since the first Quirks started to appear, law enforcement had been struggling to keep up with the rampant use of Quirks. Military soldiers were called in during the first few years to try to clean up the mess, leading to martial law for the first time in history. Things eventually settled down, but not without a number of bloodbaths.

And that was only in Japan.

Where the Quirkless criminals were concerned, it was a simple matter – While the government and officials were trying to suppress the Quirked criminals, and Quirked individuals in general, they would simply take advantage of the chaos, loot, rob, mug and attack people as they pleased. A large number of these cases were nipped eventually, but to this day, crime rates were much, much higher.

Worldwide, patterns followed. Never before in history had there been such consistently high levels of criminal activity globally, and the police and governments of the old world just weren't able to keep up. There was no way to adjust to the appearance of Quirks on such a short notice. No one had predicted such a fundamental change in society, and no one really had a way to combat it. No one could control it in any nation. Quirks were still a complete unknown.

Plenty had capitalized on that unknown factor.

"So, that's the guy then?" Mina whispered, still looking down into the alleyway. It was honestly a fairly dumb question to ask. They'd just watch the guy hand over some kind of substance to someone Quirked, it had to be this person. While she could only see the top of this man, she already knew that she hated his face, and wanted to beat it into three thousand pieces.

"Yeah." Nodded Izuku, feeling pretty much the exact same way as her, though he was doing everything in his power to restrain himself from doing exactly that. "Has to be."

Thanks to Uraraka's Quirk, Izuku had been able to leap a considerable distance, even when he was just using five percent of One For All. Literally brought down by the fact that Uraraka couldn't make herself weightless, she acted as a weight to prevent everyone from floating off into space. It had actually been a perfect jump.

When they had landed, it was atop of one of the nearby buildings, right next to where Izuku had explained his discovery was, and where these dealers were supposedly taking place. Once again, they couldn't have asked for a better landing site.

Finding the supposed dealer was easy. Within one of the many alleyways around their location, they had found what appeared to be a makeshift counter, using an old TV tray with a blanket over the top. Behind said counter, was a man, who wore a dark hoodie, obviously meant to hide his identity. The majority of his features were hidden by this hood, though it was clear, from a small reflection of light from a mobile device in his hands, that he had a very thin beard, black in colour. Little else about him was visible.

He didn't leave that particular spot for the entirety of their stay there, messing around with an app on his phone. From that point onwards, it had just been a matter of playing a waiting game, watching for him to make a move, or for someone to approach him. It was obvious that he was a person who indulged in criminal activity, making money in underhanded ways…. But Izuku was adamant about not doing anything rash until they knew for certain.

Assuming that this person was in fact innocent, and wasn't actually someone who was Quirked and just hiding out. The last thing they needed was some sort of horrendous misunderstanding. That would just make their debut have a sour taste. Not just in their mouths, but the whole of society in general.

Now that it was confirmed though, with another customer running off to ingest the suppression drug as soon as possible. Izuku didn't necessarily blame them for taking the drug. In this current society, there wasn't anything wrong with just wanting to avoid the pain that came from discrimination…

But there needed to be those who had a willingness to fight against it. People who would stand up and fight with hammer, bricks, broken fingers and shattered limbs if that was what it took. People who would push back against the tide of the whole world. People who weren't afraid to fight against injustice. Otherwise, nothing would change. And that was what he wanted to do. To be a symbol of hope for those who suffered, and give them the courage to fight back against the injustices against them.

Said drug had been produced from underneath the cover on the counter, revealing its purpose. To protect the drugs from the weather, and to hide them from anyone who might just happen to pass through, unlikely as that scenario was. This was someone who had probably been doing this with outright harmful drugs previously, and was used to the routine that one should follow. This wasn't someone who was stupid or foolish.

Just someone who was a greedy swine who wanted money, the health of everyone else be damned.

"Smug fuckin' prick." Growled Katsuki, baring his teeth along with his glare. It took some mental willpower of his not to unleash a small series of explosions in his palms, as doing so would give away their position instantly.

His pupils were tiny, and his rage was apparent.

"So, we know that he's selling Quirk suppressing drugs… What do we do with that info?" Uraraka questioned with a hushed whisper. Primarily, she was directing the question towards Izuku, since he was the person who supposedly had all of the plans regarding this kind of thing. "Do we just tip off the police, or – "

"You fucking prick!"

Without waiting for orders, without waiting for a conversation, or even waiting to hear what anyone else thought, Katsuki leaped right off of the building and into the alleyway, blasting himself towards the dealer by setting off explosions behind him, so he rocketed faster towards them with the aid of gravity. He moved like a lightning bolt towards the drug dealer's counter, from atop a three story building, to the street level within a heartbeat.

Before the dealer, or any of the group could react to the action that the Explosion Quirk user had taken, he had unleashed a massive detonation within his palms, narrowly missing the dealer's face by a few inches. His strike did, however, completely destroy the counter that was being used, blasting it into nothing but smithereens, and pushing the dealer back from the gust of wind the explosion generated.

"What the fuck?!" Screamed the Dealer, jumping back and away from the massive, sudden detonation of, from his perspective, the very air itself.

"-… Or do we do that…" Uraraka quietly finished, watching Katsuki set off another explosion towards to dealer's body. She knew very well that Katsuki was an impulsive sort of person, and staying in the shadows wasn't really his thing. Having him watch for at least a solid hour, doing nothing, and then finally presented with proof of misdoing?...

She wasn't entirely sure what she had expected.

"Raaaah!" A slam to the gut was what Katsuki managed to land, and upon making contact, he mercilessly unleashed a powerful blast, booming through the dealer's person, and sending him flying straight into the nearest wall with enough force that it made Izuku seriously worried that his friend had just slammed the guy right through the wall. Thankfully, this wasn't the case.

The man wasn't even unconscious, though he managed to cough up a bit of blood. He seemed mortified by the muscular young teenager, a clear amount of terror in what was now revealed to be blue eyes. "What the fuck… What the… Hell are you supposed to be? "

"Shut the fuck up." Katsuki warned, setting off a series of explosions off within his palms. "You keep your mouth shut until we ask you a fucking question."

"What the hell – " Silenced immediately by Katsuki launching a sever kick to the ribs, the dealer now let out a loud cry of sudden, unexpected pain. "Aaargh!"

"I said shut it!" Spat the blond haired boy, before looking up to the four other Quirked above him. "You gonna fucking come interrogate this guy or what?"

Izuku couldn't help but sigh. Of course he understood Katsuki's feelings right now. Having hidden from the world himself, hiding the powers he was now utilizing, he know what it felt like to have hope, to be able to live life the way that he wanted to, even with his Quirk in his life. Just like these people who were desperately buying up this drug.

They wanted that same freedom. Freedom that Katsuki knew wasn't a reality for the Quirked yet. He saw it as giving people hope, and exploiting it for money, leaving them not only exposed when the inevitable happened, but poorer, and therefore with fewer ways to protect themselves from the anger of society for being unlucky enough to possess a Quirk.

Violent as it might have been, it was Katsuki's way of showing empathy, at least to those who had been affected.

"What a guy." Mina lightly joked, shooting Uraraka a look from the corner of her eye. Her joke earned her a sigh from the brunette, since she didn't really have any way to argue what her Acid using friend was teasing her about.

Not wanting to wait until Katsuki had ended up breaking the dealer's arms and legs before starting the questioning, Izuku jumped down into the alleyway, activating his Quirk to strengthen his legs for the fall. Static electricity crackled from him as he fell. When he landed, the electricity rippled and crackled, eventually fading away.

"Ka – " He bit his tongue. He'd almost instantly slipped up and used his nickname for Katsuki. Mentally punching himself in the neck, he corrected himself rapidly. "Blitzkrieg, ease up. Don't rough him up too much."

Though he growled, Katsuki stepped away from the dealer, though he didn't stop unleashing his Quirk within the palm of his hands, a continuous series of explosions, with an audible crackling coming from his detonations, like he was daring the Quirkless dealer to try and make a move.

There was no threat of that though. Though he had no clue what was going on, or whom the people in front of him were supposed to be, or why on earth they were dressed up the way they were, he had gathered that they were Quirked, not that it had been a difficult thing to figure out at all. He dealt with Quirked people on a regular basis. People with tails, people with rocks coming out of their skin, people who could make fire appear, and people who could bend their arms at will.

It wasn't like he wasn't used to seeing Quirked people… Though this was possibly the first time he was seeing people who had seriously powerful abilities that could be used to inflict serious bodily harm. These were the people the news would warn the public about. The actually dangerous ones. The ones who actually were in possession of deadly abilities.

People who the public should actually be scared of.

All this was apparent from the wide open eyes, staggered breathing, and barely concealed terror that this person displayed. His eyes shakingly jittered between the Explosion Quirk user, and the One For All inheritor. He made no movements with the rest of his body. He was petrified to the point of immobility.

The Strength Enhancement Quirk user looked at this man, and then noticed a small glass container on the ground next to him, filled with some sort of dark liquid, one that hadn't been destroyed in Katsuki's explosive assault. The container was tiny, about the size of the teenager's thumb, which he picked up and held in clear view of the dealer.

"There's a drug that's going around that nullifies Quirks for a short while. Is this it?" He simply asked.

Fearful of the costumed creep in front of him, the dealer just nodded. "Y-Yeah…"

"Where are you getting it from?"

"The - The Docks."

"The Docks?"

"Y-Yeah."

"Which Docks?"

"I-Iego Docks. T-There's a group – A group of people who make the drug. They – They just give me a supply to sell, and then I give them a – a portion of the money I make selling it. I-I know! I-I'll pay you! I – I – I - I'll give you h-half of what I-I made tonight if you – "

One swift kick to the face from Katsuki though, and the dealer was knocked unconscious. "Fuckin' wimp."

While it might have seemed brutal, it did make sense to do so. Now, they could tie up the dealer, and leave him on the streets for the police to pick up. It wasn't just violence for the sake of violence… Though the dealer certainly did deserve it.

And now, they had a new location to investigate.

"Well that was… Anti-climactic." Mina stated from atop the roofs, blinking a couple of times at just how easy a mission this had been so far. "So, what, is that it? We going home now?"

"Not yet…"

"I'm guessing you want to go over to Iego Docks then." Katsuki questioned, raising an eyebrow towards his best friend. There was a one sided smirk on the blondes lips, showing he was more than down to carry on with this particular look see at the underbelly of Tokyo's crime racket.

Especially one that was harmful to the Quirked.

Izuku nodded. "Yeah. We need to learn what's going on over there, and stop this drug from being made."

* * *

 **So I've finally hashed out a fricking PLOT for the story. AND we're finally moving to the Hero side of things : D Only took a nearly a year, but we're finally doing it!**

 **Sudden MomoJirou! I'll be honest, it was always the plan to make these two a thing, but since neither of them are particularly main characters (At least not yet), I just kind of threw them together in this chapter, since life goes on when we're following Izuku and Co. they're frickin cute as all hell together, and they're amazing. The truth is, at no point would they naturally fit into the story, so I decided that they had gotten together while the main cast weren't looking. I'm going to work on giving them a bit of focus in the story, as I will Kacchako, and a few other side characters. This story is fun for exploring those sorts of relationships.**

 **I thank all of you for the suggestions for Hero names for Izuku – He's a tough one to make up a good one for. I appreciate the suggestions… But I don't wanna call him All Might, mostly because I might still be doing something with Toshinori, and I wanna keep that option open. So while I agree that it would be cool, I'm looking for something a bit more unique. I'm sort of tempted to go with a suggestion that was Maverick. Also now looking for a Hero Team Name for them all – I'm kind of tempted to just call them "The First Generation" Getting a lot of mileage out of that title name, Heheh. Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions.**

 **Reading back through First Generation though, I've found a lot of things I wanna go back and brush up on. I'll be doing that once I've reached a few particular goals on a few sites, and when I have the free time to actually do it. I'm a very busy person these days.**

 **Also, my Ajin crossover, The Immortal Hero, is now out! You can check it out of you want to see what I've been teasing for a while. I'm really proud of it, so if you want to check it out, there it is.**

 **In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter – Sorry it was a day late. It's getting hard to keep up with everything - and I'll see you soon – See ya!**


	17. Maverick

"So, we're just calling the cops. That's – That's your fucking master plan here?"

"Not like we've got much other choice, y'know, Bakugou. They have guns. We don't' exactly have Quirks to just render them useless, and I don't exactly feel like getting shot."

Iego docks was a dock which hadn't been used in quite some time, abandoned by the staff who worked at the ports around the same time that Quirks first appeared around the world. Apparently one of the workers there developed a Quirk that let them rob other people of their intake of air, which made everyone who worked there now think that it was haunted. People claimed that they were aggressively apathetic to what happened at that particular dock – Loudly and vocally announcing that they didn't care who did what there, so long as they didn't have to have any part of what happened.

Naturally taking advantage of that attitude, criminals had started using the place as a hideout of sorts, and from the looks of things, they had been using it as such for quite a while. The Japanese mafia had apparently taken over and used it as a place to offload foreign goods that were sent to them by the Chinese and Russian Mafia's, illegal weapons form the United States, and who knew what else from where else. With superpowers becoming more and more common, more people wanted some form of protection against them, even if it meant that they had to stoop to illegal means, and get hold of deadly weapons to defend themselves from what they perceived to be a massive threat.

Criminals armed with guns, ranging from pistols to automatic weapons, seemed to fill the entire area, and the Hero group dared not get any closer for risk of getting spotted. Quirks or no Quirks, the only one who really had a chance against people who were armed with this sort of weaponry was Todoroki and his ice abilities, and even then, his chances weren't exactly great. He could block the gunshots, sure, but then he's be stuck, unable to move forward for his own ice.

Katsuki let out a small growl, conceding Mina's argument. "Shame we didn't bring that rock headed fuck Kirishima. We could've used him as a living shield. He's got the Quirk for it."

"Yeah, maybe, but he isn't here." Uraraka commented, sighing lightly at the zeal that her crush was showing. "You were kinda apathetic about this whole Hero thing, weren't you, Katsuki? What's got you so worked up now?"

"Those fucks exist just to try and make money from all the bullshit Quirked people. Fear. Anger. Hatred. Whatever it takes to get those pricks extra bank." The blond growled. Having lived through that sort of hell himself… "I hate every last fucking one of them."

No argument towards his enraged disgust towards these sorts of people was vocalized whatsoever. No one felt anything else towards these people. Hatred, fury, stomach churning disgust existed in all of them, especially for this sort of criminal. Since they all had Quirks themselves, they could all understand, without any sort of struggle at all. Katsuki's emotions were valid. His desire to actually go in and take down the crooks himself was valid. All his frustration about the situation on the whole was completely valid…

But they couldn't act. Not in the way that he wanted them to. Doing so would only do as Mina said – Get them shot.

It was Todoroki that spoke up next. "So, we call the police and just leave?"

Reluctant, but with confirmation, Izuku nodded. "I can't think of anything else to do. We don't have anything that we can use to hinder them, or any real way to help take them down. Now that the police know where the area that's supplying illegal weapons into the city is, they can come and take it under control. The Quirk suppressing drugs'll be among what they get rid of."

"We have got something we can use."

Four sets of eyes fell quickly onto the boy whom had heterochromia, looking at him like he'd just revealed some sort of deep secret that he'd been hiding from the rest of them for a while now. The fingers on his right side twitched for a second, curling up into a fist, and them opening up again, while he took another glance towards the criminal group, situated about fifty meters away, darkness being the primary reason why they hadn't spotted the four vigilantes yet.

Following a rapid series of blinks, Katsuki looked from Todoroki, to the group, to the criminals, and then back to Todoroki. "The hell're you talking about?"

"You, Midoriya and Ashido aren't the only ones who kept training your Quirks." The Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user simply told him, looking towards Izuku, and taking a few steps towards the edge of the rooftop, surveying what was before him once more. "I could use my ice side to entrap them. It would take a lot out of me, but I think it's possible."

"A-Are you crazy, Todoroki?!" The black haired boy questioned, on the verge out outright yelling towards his dual haired friend. "You can't generate that much ice. You'll get frostbite from overexerting yourself!"

"Not necessarily." Todoroki countered, his eyes darting from guard to guard. "I've been working on extending how much ice and fire I can generate at any one time. It's tripled since the time that you saved me, and It's a lot thicker than it was when we had to go and save Bakugou from those abductors." He paused as he heard the Explosion Quirk user growl once again at the memory, which still embarrassed him somewhat. Todoroki continued only once Katsuki stopped. "In any case, even if I do reach my limit, I can counter-balance myself with my left side. If I'm careful enough, I can keep everyone frozen into place, and keep them in a contained area until the police arrive.

Entrap the criminals, and keep them in place for the police to arrive and pick them up. It was certainly a better first pitch than just letting the police know – As it stood, as soon as the police arrived on this site, the criminals would just start firing with their guns, and that could end up getting somebody killed.

Restricting their ability to move, and confining them into a particular location made the most sense from a practicality standpoint. It would actually be an impressive statement for their debut – They didn't need a huge madman destroying a city block for this. Just to show that they were capable…. But…

"…You sure?" He asked. The safety and well-being of Todoroki was a lot more important that any debut. Than any statement. The safety and well-being of all his friends meant much more to Izuku than them having a flashy entrance, no matter how much good it could do them.

They would have more chances to show off, to grab the attention of people, to show what Quirks were good for, and how they could help, but they didn't have more than a single life. And Izuku valued those lives of his friends a lot more than anything else right now.

Todoroki nodded though. "I'm sure."

All that said though, if Todoroki was capable of doing something like this…

"…If you're sure. Just don't hurt yourself." Izuku relented, deciding to trust in the amazing devastating power that was his friend's Quirk. He then gestured for everyone else to take a few steps back, to allow the fire and ice creator to do whatever it was that he needed to do to get ready, or to just give him the space to breath so he could focus.

"I'll be fine." With that sentence, Todoroki began to use his left side to begin heating up his body, a pre-emptive move to counterbalance his body temperature before it even began to fall. His right arm, palm now wide open, rose into the air, getting ready to dramatically create a prison for the Japanese criminals. "I don't necessarily promise anything for the ones down there, though."

Before Izuku, or anyone could say anything in response though, the ice half of the dual-haired boy's Quirk activated, suddenly and most rapidly covering the part of the building that he was standing behind in a thick layer of frost, which shot right down to the ground below, and began to encroach on the warehouse filled with illegal substances, weapons, and criminals, most rapidly.

Limitations had been something that Todoroki had been aiming to push well past, by utilizing his Quirk to the maximum. By evenly training both sides, using one single element for a huge amount of stuff, or for too long, drained him rather quickly. It had been his own personal focus to break those boundaries, to push his Quirk further so he wouldn't overexert himself in such a short amount of time. To generate a huge amount of ice, quickly, and for as long as he needed.

Additionally, he had learned a bit more about controlling his Quirk – Particularly his ice side. While his left side only allowed him to shoot flames at a target with no ability to control the direction or change the trajectory of the fire he blasted, he had better control with his right side. He could stack layer upon layer of ice atop one another, and give him more control over what he wanted to happen.

So as the frost suddenly covered the floor around the criminals, all suddenly aware of the fact that this ice was coming, but unaware of how or why, and horrified of what was happening, the ice began to rise, forming a rectangle around the outsides of the entire compound, suddenly towering over all of them, by perhaps about five meters.

Their screams of outright terror could be heard from the location of the five teens. The cries of people who didn't know what was going on, and didn't know how to react. A few attempted to fire off their weapons into the ice in an effort to stop it, not succeeding in any way whatsoever. Todoroki's ice was just too thick for that, and even if it wasn't, any holes that would have been made would simply be replaced seconds later by his Quirk.

In order to keep up the generation of his ice, Todoroki called upon the fire of his left side, making his body burst into flames, on the perfect split that divided his body between hot and cold. While it didn't exactly make him inconspicuous in the dead of the dark night, it was what allowed him to keep a stable body temperature while continuing the use his right side. No one was around to even see what he was doing anyway. Those who were, were now probably frozen in place. Quite literally.

A final addition – A rooftop, encased over the top of them, trapping them in a hollow block of ice, with only a few holes to allow for the exchange of warm and cold air, so they wouldn't freeze to death. At least not as quickly.

There was no way he had generated anything less than seven tons worth of ice – and that was being liberal with just how much was there.

"Holy fuck." Katsuki just blinked a couple of times, looking at the literal mountain of frozen water that his comrade had just generated. Todoroki's Quirk was powerful. He knew this, and so did everyone else… But he'd seen it while Todoroki was weak – Or at least weak by his Quirk's standards. Barely able to generate enough fire to fill a street.

Now he was anything but.

"What Bakugou said." Mina commented with a whistle, before looking down towards the creator of all of this ice. As he took in and let out breath, the condensation that came when warm air hit cooler air was made. "You doing alright, Todoroki?"

Since the worst of it was now done, Todoroki had snuffed out the flames on his left side. Instead, his left hand swung across his chest and grabbed hold of his right shoulder, using his thermokinetic abilities to counterbalance the low temperatures that were starting to spread. Heat transferred into his right side, melting off some of the frost that had developed into his skin, and the numbness that he suffered from overuse was reduced, and eventually dispersed.

He stood up, and after a short, violent shudder, he nodded. "I'm okay." He then took a look at the gargantuan amount of ice he had created in just under a single minute, trapping who knew how many criminals within its hollow walls. There were cries, and even a couple of gunshots to be heard from inside by those who somehow were able to still move, not that it would do them any good. He had made sure that there was more than enough of the stuff to keep them locked in place, even if they were able to move. To actually get through it, they were going to need either a flamethrower, or some pickaxes. Taking a look at his right hand, and back at his creation, he blinked.

And then sat down. He looked exhausted, which wasn't a surprise. With the sheer amount of ice and fire he'd produced in such a short span of time, it was a wonder he was even still conscious. "That solves that…. I suppose…"

"Did… We all even need to be here?" Uraraka questioned herself, her jaw ajar at Todoroki's incredible display of power.

Having somewhat recovered from the actual surprise of what had happened, Katsuki allowed him lips to form into that of a grin, and his eyebrows buried downwards, into a smug, victorious glare. "So much for the Quirkless holding all the power in the world. Put them against a strong Quirk, and they're fucking useless."

Each of them allowed themselves to just stare at the sight of their first victory – Such a one-sided fight, it was almost anti-climactic, and wasn't even funny. It was almost laughable. It was ridiculous. Just a couple of minutes, and an entire operation designed to use drugs to suppress Quirks was completely upended.

It was just further proof of the use that Quirks had in society. How many hours would an operation have taken were it just the police and the usual, traditional methods of performing a raid? Would guns have needed to be used? Would actual conflict have been required? Would people have died? How many lives would have been put at risk? How many more people would been injured in a fight that a Quirk could have just won them immediately?

Were it not for the eternal fear that Humans had over what they couldn't control…

"So, do we just call the police and tell them to come pick up these guys?" Mina questioned, turning towards the rest of her friends.

"Yeah… I think that's what we should do." Izuku confirmed, with a small nod. It was certainly a more impressive opening statement than what he thought they were going to be giving the rest of the world. This would help get their existence known.

This wouldn't be hidden. This couldn't be hidden. No matter if the police wanted to suppress the media, try and prevent this from getting out…. A literal building was encased in ice.

No one was going to be able to hide that, and there was no way to pass it off as anything other than the work of the abnormal mutations only a small percentage of the world currently owned. For right now, that was the current goal. To just get people talking about the potential for Quirk use in society.

Reaching into his pocket, the Explosion Quirk user rummaged around until he found his phone. Unlocking the device, he then called towards his black haired friend. "Deku. Heads up." He then threw the phone towards his green eyed friend with an underarm throw, which he caught with both his hands. "Call 'em with mine, and get rid of the phone when you're done. We don't want to risk being followed."

Nodding, Izuku agreed. They'd just take the memory card and leave the device here, crushed under the power that was One For All. They couldn't risk someone tracking the devices to find out where they came from. Getting hold of a new phone would be fairly cheap anyway, so it wasn't like it was the end of the world.

For a moment though, Izuku hesitated. He looked at the phone, and saw his own reflection looking back at him. What was he supposed to say? How did he make their presence sound both intimidating, but also inspiring? Something that, when it was inevitably played back on the news, would rally people behind him and the group? What could he say to show the people of Japan that those who possessed these powers honestly meant no harm to the average Japanese citizen? What words could he use to convince those who did have Quirks to rise up, to stand for what was right, to protect those who would otherwise persecute and degrade them?

Doing it face to face with people… That had its merit. Those were times when Izuku knew he could convince someone. They could see his passion. His honesty. And he could show people right in front of him how the real faces of Quirked people looked, how they felt, how they acted. How they weren't all mindless machines built for war and the extermination of Humanity…

But behind a mask? As an anonymous voice? That would be trickier…

This was what he had wanted to do, for years. To have a public stage in which to speak about those who had Quirks, and how they were just as Human as those who didn't have them… But now that he was here, the words dried up.

What he said was probably going to go down in history. So what he said here mattered.

How, and what, did he want their first words to go down as?...

* * *

"So... Do you have a Hero name yet? Or a Team Name?"

It was only a short while before they actually set out, with more last minute checks to their equipment and costumes. The pair of them were in Izuku's room, going over maintenance together, while Uraraka was showing Katsuki the ins and outs of his costume in her room.

Nerves were finally starting to get to everyone, even though they had known that this was what they had signed up for. Every one of them had thought that they were well prepared to deal with the emotional stress that would come with Vigilantism, but some were coping with it more than others. Katsuki, for example, just didn't seem to care at all, being relaxed and ready to do what was needed to be done, whereas someone like Izuku, the kind of person who overthought things to the point of ludicrousness and over-analysed to the point of obsession…

Keeping calm was proving to be difficult.

He kept himself busy though. Checking over his gear, time and time again, planning out various routes to take and things to try, as well as thinking up combinations for the team to try out once the night began, many of which involving Uraraka's Zero Gravity Quirk. As long as his brain was preoccupied, Izuku was able to keep himself calm and focused. Normally, anyway.

When monotony managed to make its way into his head, Izuku found himself unable to distract himself from his various thoughts and doubts. No matter how confidentially or assuredly he presented his Hero idea, he was just as scared as anyone else, by his own admission.

And Mina wanted to help him just calm down a bit. Asking if he had a Hero name in mind was something that would help him distract himself, wasn't it?

Better than letting him keep rattling his own thoughts in and around his head, anyway.

Izuku looked up towards her as she spoke, and then returned to his costume once she had finished. Contemplating the various ideas that were going around in his head, not sure of which one he wanted to go for.

They needed to be known in this world. They needed people to know who they were, and the needed that reputation. It couldn't be overstated how much help a strong reputation was going to help them make their point once the world knew about them and what they were doing. It wasn't just a simple matter of going out and doing good. They had to be known, and be noticed, if they wanted to help people who were oppressed by their own powers.

Domination of Quirks globally someday was simply an inevitability. The genetics and research proved that, and nothing short of genocide was going to stop that. All Izuku wanted to do was make that transition as quick and painless as possible.

To that end, he wanted his own name as a Hero, and the name of their group, to be something that people would remember. Something that when they thought of something, their minds went straight to them as Heroes. Something that people would just be inspired by.

"I…. Don't know." He admitted with a small sigh, readjusting the belt on his costume. Once his changes were made, he took a step away from the green and black clothing, and looked at the pink girl. "I don't know how everyone came up with theirs so easily."

Mina's arms folded and she shifted her weight onto her left leg as she did so. "You're thinking way too much about it dude. You're gonna drive yourself crazy." A pause. "Well, more crazy. I don't think anyone can really say that you're not insane anymore."

That managed to earn a small chuckle out of the guy, making him form the first smile he had made in quite a while. It was actually heart-warming for Mina to see, due in no small part to her crush on him. Him smiling – Seriously smiling, out of genuine joy, happiness, or content emotion – Was getting rarer by the day.

She supported the idea of Heroes primarily because she had total faith in Izuku and the dream that he held so close to his being. While the idea of being a superhero was one that she could totally get behind for purely self-indulgent reasons, it was Izuku who made her actually want to do it for a reason that was worth doing it for. For a reason that was designed to be to the benefit of everyone around her. For a reason that would actually help people.

But it seemed like it was getting under the freckled boys skin.

"Does that mean you're crazier for following me?" He asked her, with a light hearted tone to his voice.

"Probably."

Another grin, before Izuku just shook his head. "I…. I have this perfect idea in my head on how I want everything to go. I know what it is that I want to happen, and even a bit on how to make it happen. If I had all the time in the world, I could make everything perfect…. But we don't." His smile began to evaporate. "Crimes and violence against Quirk holders is just getting worse and worse… And the laws against Quirked are getting worse. You can't even use your powers in self-defense anymore…"

"Does it… Have to be now?" She asked, quietly, almost timid to actually make her statement heard. While she cared greatly about Izuku and his health, both mental and physical, she understood how much this meant to him. She was conflicted between wanting him to keep pushing forward, and wanting him to wait until he was in a better frame of mind.

It wasn't like Izuku didn't appreciate the concern either. Mina showed a lot of worry about him, and he appreciated that she cared. But… He took a deep breath, and then sighed.

"We don't have time to wait anymore." He stated, solemnly. "If things keep going like this… Then a lot more people are going to suffer. And people will keep killing each other. We need to do this now… Or we're going to struggle to convince anyone that Quirks can have a role in society."

Mina knew he was right. It had to be now, and both of them knew it.

If they wanted to convince the public that Quirks could be used for good… Then it had to be now.

Waiting any longer... Could seriously harm their ability to do anything.

"…I've got a name for you then." She said, offering a smile, weak though it was. "Since you're the most… Out there person I think I've ever met."

Looking up at her once again, Izuku's eyes opened slightly wider in intrigue and interest to what her suggestion might be.

* * *

He took a deep breath while he typed in the numbers for the police line, closed his eyes, and just waited for the dial up tone to finally stop, so he could speak to an actual Human being. Even with his eyes shut, he could tell that everyone was just looking at him, hanging on what he was going to say.

Mental rehearsing went on in his head as he rapidly thought up something to say. It had taken a couple of minutes, but he had figured out what he wanted to say, and how he wanted to say it. He had his Hero name, and he had the Team name. He had a simple message that the police needed to hear from him and the Heroes that Tokyo now had.

It had only been about three or four since they had left the dorm rooms behind them, and they had already taken down something as big as at least a single crime organization, and discovered the main entry point for harmful, faulty drugs in the city. This was something that was going to force people to look at Quirks in a different Not only would this force the city to look at Quirks at least in a slightly different way, it made he himself think about the benefits to their powers all the more so.

This was proof. This was all that they needed to prove that they had the power to be used for good – And this was just Todoroki's Quirk. Just one single Quirk. The possibilities of doing this with a hefty number of powers?

Should this idea take off someday… Then maybe the world would still be able to be changed. Just maybe.

Actually getting connected through to someone only took about thirty seconds, though it felt like an entire day to the black haired boy. Once he heard the receiver being picked up, he cut short the inhale he was taking. "This is the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, what's your emergency?"

Looking up at the ice that his friend had made, Izuku managed to speak. "I want to speak to the highest standing person of authority in your department."

"Excuse me?" The receptionist, a male, sounded utterly confused, not that Izuku blamed him in the slightest. This won't have been something that he was exactly expecting to deal with this early in the morning, he knew. This felt like something straight out of a terrible straight to video movie that could be found in any garage store. .

But he kept pushing. He knew how important this was. How much he needed to get this message out to someone in authority. Someone who would have the ears of a large chunk of the population. "You heard me. I need to speak to the highest ranking authority figure you can put me through to. It's important."

"Sir, what are you – "

"I have a tip about a major crime organization operating at the docks. I need this information to be transmitted to someone who had the power to do something with the information."

The rest of the team kept their eyes on Izuku, both with a mixture of apprehension and anxiety. The call was closed, without any speakerphone to allow the rest of them to hear in on the conversation. All they had to go on was the words that their leader was using, and could only draw their own conclusions, or suspect as to what was happening until he finally turned around and told them the details.

Waiting though, as Izuku spoke back and forth with this person, was a nerve wrecking experience. Not knowing what was being said on the other end, being unaware as to how things were progressing…. All they really could do was just hope that Izuku would be able to get across what he needed to get across.

Eventually, somehow, Izuku managed to convince the receptionist to patch him through to someone else. A combination of insisting that he really did have important information about what he said he did, and telling this person that what he had was too important for it to simply be relayed. He was lucky that the receptionist was young, and probably completely inexperienced. Were he dealing with someone who had been doing this sort of thing for decades, years, or even a few months, this probably wouldn't have gone over very well.

Luck was on Izuku's side however, and within a few minutes of the call being made, he was patched through to tan officer who was capable of redirecting the message straight to the Head of the district. It was as good a place to start as any.

"This is Police Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi." The detective's voice came from the other end of the phone unexpectedly, giving Izuku a bit of a shock when he finally spoke. "I understand that you've wanted to speak to someone in authority."

One final intake of breath, and Izuku steeled himself fully. This was it.

"Yes." He stated simply. "That's right."

"Well, thank you for reporting this to us. Can I get your name down?"

"Maverick."

There was a few seconds pause before the detective on the other end of the line spoke once again. He sounded much, much more confused than the previous receptionist had. "I beg your pardon?"

"I'm Maverick." Izuku repeated himself, clearly and without any hint of hesitation. He didn't see it, as he was focused on the conversation he was having, but the use of that word had managed to make his pink skinned friend smile wide and brightly.

His Hero name, bestowed onto him by Mina, based on how he acted, rescuing Quirked individuals, fighting against the way of the world, and how he could act without thinking, charging off to do his own thing – The entire concept of Heroism had been built up by him. If he wasn't a Maverick, then no one on the planet was.

"That's the only name you need to know me by." He firmly punctuated that with his words, making it clear through his voice alone that the detective wasn't going to get anything else form him. This was the name he wanted to go by as a Hero. He wasn't going to budge on it.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Detective Tsukauchi sounded completely bewildered by what he was hearing. No one could blame him. The situation did seem absurd to someone who had no idea what was going on."Who is this?"

"I want you to listen to me." Izuku stated, looking over the scene just in front of him. "I'm a Quirked person, and I'm at Iego docks, but I'm not going to be here for much longer. There's a criminal group that uses the docks to sneak in drugs that are harmful to people, but particularly against those who have Quirks."

The slightest of pauses. "How do you know this?"

"Because someone in my group used their Quirk to capture them all for you. They're in a huge hollow cube of ice right now. You can come and pick them up without having to fire a gun, or even deal with them trying to resist in any way."

"Your group?"

Though the Detective couldn't see it, Izuku nodded. "Laws keep getting passed against people who have Quirks, even though the vast majority of us haven't done anything wrong. The laws that stop us from using our Quirks to defend us against violent attacks – We're left in a position where we can't even prove we're not a threat anymore. With that law in place, any good we do with our Quirks is treated as a crime… So, we're going to prove that Quirks can be used to help."

Part of him did feel slightly hypocritical. He wasn't naturally Quirked, and he was now speaking on behalf of every single Quirked person in the city. Maybe even the entire country. His friends trusted in what he was saying… But that didn't mean everyone else would.

Memories of what had happened with Shigaraki came back to him…. Though he quickly shook them out of his head.

"I want you to relay all of what I've told you to the Head of the district. And I want you to tell them this, in these words exactly for me."

Another moment of silence fell, this time, far, far longer.

"…And that is?" The response came, almost hesitantly from the other end.

For the first time that night, Izuku was able to make a smile – Not a light hearted one, or one that he was forcing in order to befit this image of a Hero that he had made up himself.

But one that was wide, baring his teeth, and relishing in a sense of victory.

"Tell them that The First Generation isn't going anywhere."

* * *

 **I know it's been a while, but Uni is difficult, okay guys ;-;**

 **I'm really sorry, ahaha. I've been wanting to update this a lot, but it's difficult to juggle everything all at once. I still have so many plans that I'm looking forward to bringing into fruition when it comes to this story, so worry not, we'll get there!**

 **Thanks to everyone who left suggestions for the Hero names and Hero teams – I went with Maverick because in this world – That's what he is. A Maverick. It just felt the most fitting name to give him.**

 **While I'm here, I wanted to suggest that those of you who want updates on what I'm doing and talking about – You should follow my Tumblr, at QuirkQuartz. I'm really active on there lately, discussing with people and talking and doing head canons and answering asks and ranting and it's seriously just a great time. So I recommend that I you like general madness and Minadeku headcanons.**

 **Either way – I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time!**


	18. The Day After

One thing that Izuku hadn't exactly taken into consideration when he had come up with the idea of Heroism was one that, in retrospect, he really should have. How he had missed it was honestly ridiculous, but it was going to be something that was going to mess with each and every single person that got involved with their group. Everyone would be affected, no matter who they were, and what their Quirk was, or how hard they worked.

They barely got enough sleep.

Waking up in a morning was infinitely more difficult. He was absolutely exhausted beyond all measure. Why exactly he hadn't expected this was actually beyond him, now that he thought about it. His eyelids felt like weights, and light stung his actual eyes. He'd barely gotten about what amounted to four hours of rest after running like hell from the scene of Todoroki's one man display of pure power. Even though no one else had really had the opportunity to do much, the outing itself served as a good way to cut their teeth on the idea of going out at night, to patrol, and to figure out what sorts of things were ahead of them. It was a gentle way to indoctrinate themselves into acting like Heroes from the comic books. Or as gentle an induction as it could possibly be.

Still, he had to let out a groan as he forced himself to sit up in his bed. He might not have had much to do last night, but that still didn't stop him from being exhausted. Totally against any real choice of his own, he now woke up at eight in the morning no matter how little sleep he'd had the previous night. Having to wake up for classes around this time had conditioned him into this schedule with his body, even when he knew he had more time to sleep, to relax and to recover.

He just found himself unable to do so. He was used to being active, to doing things, to being in places and doing various tasks. Having lived to help improve the state of the world for those who were born with Quirks, he was used to waking up early, but he was always on a decent sleeping pattern. Heroism had torn that particular pattern to pieces. That was something he knew that he was going to have to get used to. Being tired all the time. Getting naps in during the afternoon, or wherever he could.

Of all the things that he had expected to come into contact with as a Hero, a messed up sleeping schedule certainly hadn't been one of them.

Still, it was part of what he had to do… And besides, he wasn't going to hide it. He was a little bit excited to hear what the news had to say about The First Generation.

Quickly, he dressed himself in his uniform, in accordance with the rules that stated students needed to be in uniform, no matter what day it was. He went over to the mini-fridge that he kept in his room, grabbed a can of soda, cracked it open, and took several long, deep gulps of the cold liquid inside. The sudden intake of caffeine helped him feel a bit more alert and awake, even if it was unhealthy a thing to do first thing in the morning. He made a mental note to stock up on those sorts of drinks – He had a feeling that he was going to be needing to rely on them in the foreseeable future.

Feeling slightly more alert than he was about a minute ago, Izuku made his way out of his room and towards the main kitchen. He thought about knocking on Mina's door, since, knowing her, she was probably still fast asleep, but he decided against it. Mina wasn't a morning person at the very best of times, and he remembered that she was one of the more anxious people about starting up the Hero idea. Combine that with the nerves of what had actually gone down yesterday, and yeah, she'd be out like a light. Letting her sleep seemed like the kinder thing to do.

Besides. She might be one of his best friends these days… But he still held some awkwardness about her.

Especially due to that near kiss not long after meeting her. He hadn't forgotten about that in any real way, but he'd pushed it aside. They both seemed to have put it aside, in favour of dealing with what had been far more important at the time. Settling into Yuuei, training, and sorting out becoming Heroes. Those things had taken precedent over any awkward feelings or misconceptions that they felt towards one another. Eventually, both seemed to have, at least on the surface, forgotten about the incident.

Izuku certainly hadn't though. The fact did remain that he barely even knew Mina when compared to everyone else, yet she was one of the people that he felt the absolute closest to in the recent couple of months. While he knew Katsuki for years, and he was undoubtedly the best friend that he had ever had, he was abrasive at times, which did make him difficult to talk to sometimes. He was used to it, of course, and he understood why his friend was this way, but he still found it hard sometimes. What with Katsuki's overall general self-loathing and his distaste towards the general Quirkless population, which did bring him into conflict with Izuku's own ideals a bit. Again, he understood. But that didn't make it necessarily easier.

When it came to him and Mina though, the pair had spent a lot of time together, and she had quickly shown her support and willingness to adapt and change her ideals when presented with something better, a rarity in this confused and violent society. Even when faced with the brutality of the world, she was able to be the better person, and change her ways. It was one of the reasons Izuku respected her as much as he did. It made her easy to talk to. And now he knew about her past, the scars she held, and that her brother was literally patrolling the place they lived every day… Her commitment to continuing to stand with the idea of Heroism made him appreciate and respect her even more.

And it was developing into something else.

He knew that it was. He hadn't ever been in a position like this, when he just knew that he was starting to not just hold someone close as a dear friend, but actually start to like them. That could mostly be attributed to the fact he barely had any female friends, outside of Uraraka, and a couple of Quirked individuals that he had managed to help, but who left to make their own way later down the line. While he was on good terms with Uraraka, she always had a closer connection to Katsuki, thanks to how all three of them met one another. So it was that Izuku had barely had a single friend, who happened to be a girl, who he had gotten close to. But he just knew that these feelings were turning into romantic ones. Like a switch, they were just there now.

Uraraka mentioned a couple of times to him that that way that it was for her. With very few people to talk to outside of Todoroki, who wasn't exactly the easiest person in the world to talk to unless you were already friends with the guy, she had spoken to the black haired boy about her affection for his best friend. She had spent a lot of time with Katsuki whenever they saw one another, and had been quite honest about the fact that, even though she knew it wasn't good for comfort reasons or psychological ones, particularly not in Katsuki's case, she was sort of looking forward to the day that he and Izuku came to live at Yuuei. When talking about it, she described it just as a snap of the fingers, and then realizing that you actually liked this person. That you had come to care about them to a degree that you just were never sure you honestly could. That the idea of them going away hurt. That you wanted to help protect them, even if they were the most capable person on the planet. Even if they got angry at you for doing so. This sorts of feelings just happened, according to her. Or they developed over a long period of time, so slowly that no one noticed until they compared themselves to the day they first met this person, and themselves right now.

That was basically what had happened to Izuku, only in a much shorter space of time. Just a few months, and he was already feeling this way. About Mina.

Memories of that near kiss that had been interrupted by Katsuki ran through his head nearly every night. They hadn't the previous night, since he was practically knocked out the second that he hit his mattress, so his brain made up for it this morning. The butterfly effect idea had entered his mind, making him wonder, how would the world be different if Mina _had_ actually managed to kiss him that day? What would have happened between the two of them? How would things be different? Would he still have conceptualized the idea of Heroism? Would he know about the marks on Mina's horns, about her past, and the terrible things her family had done to her since her birth? What would have changed? What differences would there be between this world and this different world that he had made up in his head.

And there was a part of him was slightly depressed that he had to have ended up in this world, and not this fantasy world of his own thinking… Still, this was what he had to live with now, and he was going to have to make do with it.

Pushing these particular thoughts out of his head – Because he knew, if he kept thinking about this and going deeper into the rabbit hole, he'd either have an existential crisis, get nothing done that day, or both – He made his way towards the living space, as had been his original goal. Turning the corridor that would lead him to this particular room, he could see both Yaoyorozu and Jirou, the smaller girl being held into what looked to be a hold of tenderness from behind. Both had their eyes completely fixed towards the direction of the shared rooms television, to which Izuku could heard blaring out words and noises. The mutterings and talking's of other people could also be heard in the room, and the shifting figures of a couple of those inside quickly told him that nearly half the dorm was already awake.

 _"…Updates regarding the supposed First Generation group have recently come up, with Yuuei Headmaster Toshinori Yagi denying that he or any of his students were involved in any way about the incident at Iego Docks."_ The news station. Word had already gotten out about the Hero group! He knew that he shouldn't be surprised since, although society had virtually come to a standstill, they did still live in a digital age, but it still made Izuku's heart race a little bit. He picked up his walking pace rapidly, hoping to get a look at the television before the report was over. " _Yuuei High for Quirked Individuals has been met with an avalanche of controversy since it's opening several months ago, with several incidents occurring around the school, including a recent one that resulted in all uses of Quirks being outlawed under any circumstances. Toshinori went onto record to say that he believes that these harsh laws against the Quirked are what has caused this event, and similarly suspects that many others just like it will occur. He also did not comment on if he condoned or condemned the actions of the group calling themselves The First Generation_."

Several mutters began in the room again, all from different people, discussing the report. It was clear no one had expected to wake up to this, and some of them were downright shocked at it.

"Who even would do this?"

"They've gotta be at Yuuei, right?"

"Where else could they have come from?"

"This happened pretty close to Yuuei. It's got to be someone from here."

"Yuuei doesn't contain anyone who is above eighteen as a student. The teachers would have their Quirks recorded. Plus, Yuuei only contains students our age to keep us out of the education system." Kirishima reminded everyone. "It couldn't be someone from here. The Quirkless would know quickly." He honestly seemed quite happy though, like what was going on right now had validated his claims in some way. Izuku had to take a double check to make sure that it was Kirishima he was looking at. Without his hair up, he could almost pass for an entirely different person. He was grinning, showing his sharpened teeth as he did so, watching every second of the broadcast intently.

A series of interviews with random citizens began to air, each of them expressing some kind of opinion regarding the situation, if they felt that the actions the previous day were just, or if they were the actions of those who had attack those criminals were just as guilty of criminal activity themselves. A surprisingly high number of two people actually stated that they felt that the actions were good, and that they had benefited the city. This was out of a pool of apparently three hundred people, so either they were the only two, or they'd intentionally hidden the rest so the public couldn't see them. Either way, it was more than Izuku had honestly expected from one single Vigilante act.

The next thing to come onto the screen was the massive glacier of ice that Todoroki had made, starting to melt slightly, but with firemen and city workers trying to destroy the thing sooner. The criminals whom had been inside the thing had been evacuated from it a long time ago. No one had died, according to one of the banners that ran underneath the visuals. _"This enormous chunk of ice is what has caused such a controversy. The individual who has done this clearly possesses some sort of Quirk that allows them to generate large quantities of ice at any one time, which they use to freeze their targets inside this glacier, which as it turns out, it incredibly hollow on the inside, with only a few thick layers appearing in certain areas to reinforce the structure of the prison. Such ice patterns and structural integrity, even in nature have not been observed to occur often, leading many to the conclusion that this particular Quirked individual possesses an incredibly large amount of power."_ The reported seemed uncomfortable being even close to the structure. It seemed pretty clear that she wasn't comfortable around Quirks or anything to do with them, only being there because her job demanded it. _"Police claim that they have been searching the registration lists for individuals who possess Ice generation type Quirks. However, because this type of Quirk is a common one, no suspects have been named."_

"Todoroki!" Mineta was the one who turned his head rapidly to face the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user, and point a finger at him. "You're the only guy I know who has a Quirk that could do that! Did you do it?!"

"Weren't you listening?" Hagakure questioned, sounding the slightest bit annoyed with the Pop-Off Quirk user. "They said that this person had to have a powerful ice type Quirk, but Todoroki, your ice isn't that strong, is it?" She made a couple of gestures with her arm, particularly with her left one being more active, perhaps as a way to visualize fire. "Y'know, since you have to also do the flame thing?"

It wasn't even close to the truth, but were it going to hide his identity, Todoroki would happily play the fool in this context. He simply nodded his head. "That's right. I've always used both my sides equally. If I focused only on my right side, maybe, but I don't have anything strong enough for that."

"Quirkless'll probably come to investigate you though, won't they dude?" Kirishima questioned, looking over towards the dual-hair coloured boy from the corner of his eye.

That was true. Even if it was just to cross Todoroki, and anyone else in the school who had an ice type Quirk, off their list of potential suspects, as well as an excuse to snoop around Yuuei, the police would almost certainly be coming to pay a visit, to interrogate Todoroki, to make sure that his story checked out. That wasn't something that he had any sort of control over though. No one really had any sort of control over what the Quirkless would be doing. Blaming Todoroki for what was inevitably going to be one hell of a horrible day was just… Unfair.

"…I apologize for that." He stated simply. He bowed as he did so, signifying full, genuine remorse for it, even though it wasn't remotely anything he had anything to do with – Well, he did, but even if he didn't, the police would come to interrogate him anyway.

"H-Hey, don't do that! It's not your fault!" The Hardening Quirk user quickly responded, holding up his left hand like he were surrendering only on one side of his body. "Didn't mean for it to sound like that. Sorry, dude." For all his faults, once again, Izuku was reminded that Kirishima did stand by and care about the people around him who shared the situation that he was in, even if they had differences in opinion directly. Were he not so anti-Quirkless, he would be the sort of person Izuku would have happily approached and brought into their circle.

As it stood though, he was way too volatile a person for Izuku to even consider it, even though he had been showing signs of improvement lately. He still didn't even believe that Izuku had a Quirk. Not that he'd ever shown his powers to anyone anyway.

His reason for doing so was simple – He wanted to see the reactions and treatment that he would get. Manipulative though it might be, Izuku felt that if he could get a sense on how people felt around Quirkless people, even if they told what, to people who hadn't seen his power, a lie that was almost insulting, he could gauge how much work he had ahead of him. It was underhanded. He agreed… But it was efficient, and it was a lot better than finding out too late that he'd an enormous number of horrendous mistakes.

One day though, he would reveal his Quirk to these people. But it wouldn't be until he felt he had to. Where it could help his case in some big way. Maybe he was overthinking things and maybe he was doing this just because he kind of enjoyed the mental idea of knocking people's pre-conceived ideas about him and the Quirkless down the drain. He had his reasons for doing what he was doing though, so that was enough for him.

"Midoriya?" It was Jirou who eventually noticed Izuku standing on the side-lines, catching him from the corner of her eye.

A few people turned to see the new entry to the room, including Yaoyorozu, Todoroki and Fumikage, who had been stood next to one another, Uraraka, whom was perched on the side of the sofa, and Bakugou, whom sat next to her, but everyone else seemed more focused to the television set, understandably so. No one had ever seen someone with a Quirk try and do something like this before. The idea of using Quirks in benefit to society. It had been so openly rejected that the thought of people just doing so anyway, damning the consequences, and on this level – Of course a repressed minorities eyes would be glued firmly to the screen.

"Morning, Deku…" Uraraka greeted her friend as she stifled a yawn, still obviously tired beyond all measure. The lack of sleep that she would have gotten was also noteworthy. There wasn't much energy into her voice, or when she raised her hand as a small greeting wave.

"Morning, Uraraka. Kacchan." Izuku greeted towards the two of his friends that were closest to him. He offered Todoroki a small wave from across the room, which he acknowledged by replying with his own. He attempted to offer a smile of some description to Fumikage, though he only responded with a nod. If that meant they were good or not, Izuku hadn't the first clue. He was difficult to read. And that didn't have anything to do with his Quirk or Mutations. He was a difficult person to understand even at the best of times. Deciding it best that he feign complete ignorance at what was on the television, he played dumb. "What's going on?"

Tilting her head over slightly, Yaoyorozu looked over to the resident supposed Quirkless dorm-mate, and gave him the briefest of explanations. "According to the news, some people with Quirks went out and stopped some kind of crime gang at the harbour."

To punctuate the point further, the broadcast then switched frame, catching the attention of most people. Instead of a citizen this time, the camera focused in on what appeared to be a police officer. The banner at the bottom of the screen indicated who this man was – A police officer by the name of Naomasa Tsukauchi. Izuku recognized it as the officer he had been put through to when he called to reveal the location of the incident.

 _"I was working late, and I was told that I needed to answer a call from someone who wanted to remain anonymous. Those kinds of calls aren't particularly uncommon, so I didn't think it was going to be something even remotely close to this. When I asked who was calling, the person on the other end identified themselves as 'Maverick'. He then told me about the incident, where it was, and what had happened. To be honest, I thought it was a prank call until officers that were dispatched reported a massive glacier."_

 _"Were you told anything else by this 'Maverick'?"_

 _"He gave me a message for the Head of Department. And told me to tell them that 'The First Generation isn't going anywhere.'"_

Izuku could only grin. That had gone far better than he could have ever dreamed. Forget it going to people in high places – It was downright going national thanks to the media, and this officer's openness about the incident!

 _"Do you have any opinion regarding that particular message? What do you believe the intent of it was?"_

The policemen seemed to hold his tongue for a brief second, thinking up what to say, and if he should say it. Whatever internal conflict he was having, he resolved quickly, and spoke once more. _"I don't think that the name, The First Generation, necessarily applies to the group who did this. That may be their intention, and for all intents and purposes, that is now what we're referring to them as, but I believe that this is more a message as to Quirked people in general. This is the first generation in which Quirks have existed, or at least have been known to exist, in a widespread case worldwide. In my opinion, that message was made to say that Quirks aren't going anywhere, and that we can expect more cases like this to prop up the longer that Quirks exist."_

Another grin. This policeman had gotten the exact definition that Izuku had been going for. While he had chosen the name for the group as well, the purpose of that message had been a statement about Quirks, and their holders. That they weren't about to be pushed aside.

That they weren't about to be treated like this for long.

That they weren't allowing this world to keep treating them like this.

"Yes!" Kirishima practically cheered at this statement, activating his Quirk around his firsts and forearms and slamming his knuckles together, like it were a show of solidarity. "Hell yes! We aren't going anywhere!"

"Calm the fuck down." Bakugou quickly snapped, glaring at the red haired teen with one eyebrow raised. "I doubt they're as anti-Quirkless as you are. They fucking helped the city by getting rid of criminals. Making it safer for Quirkless people."

"You heard the earlier stuff! How those bastards were making drugs harmful to Quirks!" Looking at Bakugou now, Izuku could see the wide, teeth baring grin that the traditionally most controversial student there has across his face. "So they helped get rid of that too! And either way, they're showing that Quirks aren't anything to try and mess with! That's just incredible for us!"

Several mutterings and vocal words of agreement of Kirishima's assessment of the situation. Jirou seemed to look up at her girlfriend with a smile, although Yaoyorozu seemed conflicted in some way. Others in the room, like Kaminari and Mineta, seemed just as enthused as the Hardening Quirk user at the sudden and unexpected development in the world. Quirks were still hated, and it was unlikely that this was going to even start to tip the iceberg…. But for many people there, it was one of the first times they didn't feel ashamed to have a Quirk. To have a power. They actually seemed proud. Happy.

Which only made Izuku smile.

"Okay, settle down."

Cutting the sudden conversation and celebration short, their tall and scruffy homeroom teacher Aizawa suddenly appeared behind Izuku. He'd shown up totally without warning, and was virtually completely silent. Him suddenly being behind Izuku, frankly, scared the hell out of him. His presences sent a shiver down the spine of a lot of his students a lot of the time, given his… Particular personality.

As was per usual, he looked tired, scruffy, barely even dressed as per hi normal attire, and one look at his face could let anyone know that he didn't even give the slightest care as to why he was here. Perhaps he hadn't been told specifics. Or maybe he had, and they were so dull and irrelevant to him that he felt that being here was just a water of time. Or maybe he was just tired. It was hard to tell when it came to the Erasure Quirk user.

He looked down on Izuku, and then did a quick scan of the room. "Midoriya. Todoroki. Bakugou. Uraraka. All of you plus Ashido have been called up to see Headmaster Yagi. He wants to see you, immediately."

That sent a shiver down Izuku's spine.

"What the hell for?" Katsuki questioned. Anyone who knew that he was involved in what had happened last night would be able to tell, but the Explosion Quirk user was good at hiding his emotions in his voice. There was a slight hint of panic and shock, which he had covered up for with anger. Pride refused him to look weak in any way.

Izuku echoed the sentiments though. Had his teacher, the one whom had bestowed One For All onto him, already figured it out? Learned who they were? What they had done the previous night? Was it the voice? The code–name? The actions themselves? Izuku had always been vocal in his beliefs that Quirks could be used to help society – Had that given him away? Or was this something completely unrelated? The timing though, it was too perfect. It couldn't be a coincidence. But there was no way that he could know!

"You'll have to go and speak to him to find out." And with that, just as quickly as he had appeared, Aizawa was gone. He wouldn't ever stick around any longer than was absolutely necessary for him to under any circumstances at all. A man of pure logic, through and through. Or at the very least, his own particular brand of logic.

Sending a look between the other three of his friends, the same thought were running through their minds as well. He could tell.

No one knew what was going on.

* * *

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaa…." Mina let out a long, loud yawn, not even bringing her hand over her mouth to cover it. She was way too tired to even do that much.

How she was so relaxed in the situation did honestly amaze Izuku to no end. He knew that she was a carefree person when she didn't need to worry about getting her head beaten in with a piece of lead pipe by some bigot on the streets. While she had been incredibly stressed and admittedly terrified of going out the previous night, like anyone would have been in this society, looking at her now, she looked like she didn't have even the slightest care in the world. Where this sort of brazen lack or care, especially in their current predicament came from was totally beyond him. He wasn't sure if it scared him, or if he was just downright jealous of her.

The group of students were making their way towards the Headmasters office, all the way on the top floor of the building. Todoroki was the one up at the front, whilst Katsuki and Uraraka were behind him, and following them, were Izuku and Mina. Izuku had been the one to knock on Mina's door and get her to wake up, though that in itself had taken five minutes. He'd been absolutely right when he'd guessed that she was still asleep. In fact, as he knocked, he was able to hear her groaning, attempt to ignore his repeated attempts to get her attention, and the moment when she had finally given up and gotten out of bed.

Well, more accurately, rolled over and fallen out of bed. He heard her hit the ground, and had to stop himself from laughing when she finally answered the door, rubbing the side of her head.

"Is it weird that this kind of reminds me of the day I met you two, Katsuki?" Uraraka questioned. As she spoke, she rubbed her right arm with her left, and took a glance over towards the Explosion Quirk user, whom seemed more intensely focused on getting to where he was going rather than paying attention to anyone else.

"Oh?" Suddenly cutting her yawn short, Mina leaned in between the gap that separated Katsuki and Uraraka, and gave her friend a knowing look. "So, what's the story behind that?"

A faint blush made its way onto the Zero Gravity Quirk user's cheeks, suddenly flustered at the pink girl's question. Katsuki shot a glad Mina's direction, though her head was turned away so she didn't see it. "U-Uh…"

"Uraraka rescued Kacchan."

Mina turned her head back around to look towards a smiling Izuku, and, once she looked back towards her brown haired friend, a small smile of her own, though her rosy cheeks were still noticeably redder. Uraraka was poking the finger pads of her index fingers against one another, perhaps as a nervous habit of some description.

"What, seriously?"

"Can you people maybe fucking focus?" Katsuki suddenly growled loudly, cutting short any potential conversation that could have arisen from this topic. "Am I the only one who is at the least slightly concerned about what the hell Deku's fucking teacher wants?"

Any semblance of a smile that was on Izuku's mouth quickly fell. For the briefest moment, Uraraka and Mina's conversation had been a nice momentary distraction. For the briefest of moments, he hadn't been thinking about the sense of dread that was in his stomach.

Now it was back though.

Katsuki wasn't the sort of person that didn't like those distractions. He preferred to remain focused. To keep his mind on topic. Hearing people talking about irrelevant things, that didn't matter to the current task or threat, those things irritated him to no end. And Izuku couldn't necessarily blame him for it, especially given the past.

But it did mean that when he demanded that everyone did return their focus, they all had that same feeling of dread and despair hit them again. Anxiety hit them all like a punch to the gut. Because they did all know that deep down, while they could certainly try to persuade themselves in whatever ways they could, but they all really knew deep down.

Toshinori had to know about their acts as Vigilantes from the previous night.

There was just no way that he didn't. There was no way that he hadn't called specifically them, specifically today, for this. There was just no way.

"….Hey can't really know that it was us, right?" Mina questioned, looking between all of her friends with an expression of mixed panic and genuine disbelief. "I mean, the only person who used their Quirk was Todoroki… And we hid all of our faces."

Even if they had been careless in some respect with that, there were still barely even any witnesses to attest to seeing anything at all – And even if that weren't the issue, because there was absolutely no way that they weren't going to have to come into the spotlight at some point. That was specifically part of Izuku's plan for them – They were still presented with the dilemma as to how in the hell they had already been found out.

It didn't make any sense. There wasn't any leak in their disguises.

Did this mean that they had some kind of fault in how they were doing things? Had that cost them everything?

What the hell had -

"…That dealer in the alleyway." Katsuki suddenly stated, the answer dawning on him, and hitting the rest like a ton of bricks.

He and Izuku had used their Quirks in front of, and on that particular man. The news didn't say anything about that one, though there was no way that he hadn't been taken into custody, even if someone else came along and found the guy and all the drugs that he was selling when morning came. He could have given witness testimony to their Quirks and how they had worked.

While they had a good cover for one another's Quirks… They hadn't announced how their fake powers worked to the public. An ice type Quirk – That would be easy to write off as anyone with Ice generation powers.

It would not so easy to write off One For All and Explosion. Without their own spin on the narrative….

Izuku and Katsuki looked at one another, realization of this hitting them both at the same time.

"…Oh, fuck." The Explosion Quirk user groaned.

They'd screwed up.

* * *

Izuku had known Toshinori for two years, which he did consider to be a fairly long time. During that time, the two had become close, and he did, in some ways, consider his mentor to be like a father figure to him, in the same way he almost considered Katsuki to be like a brother. He kept him on the right path and guided him, showed him ways to improve himself, and helped him along the way. He showed Izuku that there were others who shared his dream, and tried to help him however he could. He displayed a great deal of knowledge, and had shared so much of it with the green haired boy that the current holder of One For All honestly didn't think that he would even be close to the kind of person that he was today without his mentors help. He was grateful for everything that Toshinori had done for him, and felt like he owed him… Basically his entire life at this point.

He'd given him a path to aid in his own journey. He'd taught him so much. He was the reason Izuku even had a Quirk at all, and he'd tried his best to help him have an easier life at Yuuei – With people like Kirishima around though, that had proven a futile attempt.

Through that amount of time together, Izuku got to know Toshinori. He got to know and truly understand the kind of person that he was, and had a pretty good idea on how he thought. The type of things he would think or say about any particular situation, Izuku would probably be able to have a guess as to what his mentor's opinion on it would be.

Stood in front of the skinny man now though, Izuku didn't know what to think.

Toshinori was a very secretive person when he wanted to be. That came a lot with the kind of life that he had led, wanting to create a bridge between the Quirked and the Quirkless. Along with that, he was also a very good liar, able to hide his passed down Quirk for a very long time. He was totally capable of lying through his back teeth if he wanted to.

Which, now that he was at opposite the five students, made him slightly unnerved. He understood his mentor, certainly – But that didn't make him an easy man to read.

Especially when it came to something that hadn't even been considered before.

All five of the Vigilantes stood in a row, about a meter away from the blond man, whom sat, looking at each of them, with his fingers intertwined with one another, rested on his desk. Toshinori wasn't the kind of person who particularly wanted to be in a position like a Headmaster, Izuku knew. Were it completely up to him, he'd gladly give the position to nearly anyone else whom he felt confident could handle the pressures and troubles of being in charge of such an institution. He had openly said that he would prefer Nedzu to be at the head of the school beforehand, due to his vastly superior intelligence and expertise in a management position, but an animal in charge of a bunch of Humans, especially when Quirks weren't even accepted in the dominant species, would not go down well at all. No one else wanted the position. He was the only person that people felt could perform it amicably. It was for reasons like this that he hated the idea of being in charge of Yuuei. Having to make decisions about what was to be done with these five students.

Particularly, he wouldn't know what to do with his protégé. He had no doubts regarding the good intent and kindness that Izuku was acting under. There wasn't to be any sort of doubt that he was quite honestly one of the biggest advocates for Quirked right, and that he'd do absolutely anything to help make those happen. In a way, he'd almost been encouraging Izuku to take that to its logical conclusion. He never criticised him for his actions, rushing in to save those who were being attacked. Never criticized him for fighting against bigots in the way that he did. Never criticized him for doing just about anything, really, were it in regards to the rights of those who had powers.

Izuku had willingly accepted a Quirk. He'd willingly accepted the status of a third class citizen, had suffered wounds and scars time and time again, and all to stand by his friends. To stand by those who were born with these Quirks. There could be no question to his empathy and loyalty…

And now, he had to punish him for them.

Of course, this all was under the assumption that Toshinori had even a reason to suspect the five of them… Though Izuku didn't doubt for a second that he did know.

So he just sat there, and awaited his mentor's words.

Clearing his throat after about thirty seconds of silence, Toshinori finally spoke. "I take it that you've all heard about the situation down at the Iego Docks."

Everyone played it cool, or as cool as they were capable of doing. Izuku felt his hands grip onto his legs as the words came towards him, though he tried his best to hide any sort of emotion that might give him away.

"Yes sir." Todoroki was the one who answered on behalf of everyone there, since no one else dared to speak. "We were watching the report when Aizawa came to call us here."

"I… Heard it from everyone else." Mina said, lying through her teeth to try and make the story slightly more believable in whatever way that she could. It would be less suspicious if one of them wasn't there for the report, right?

"The police have been in contact with Yuuei and me since the incident, asking me for any reports of student behaviour that might lead them to the identities of the 'Vigilantes'." Toshinori said, waving his left hand around vaguely, as if to dismiss those who had spoken to him. "I told them that there were no people in our student body or staff that were capable of achieving such a feat…. They plan on sending interrogatories later this week though, to search through everyone and to make sure that we're being up front and honest about our claims."

That wasn't a surprise to anyone though. The police were sure to have been ready to go as soon as they realized that this was a serious investigation that they had on their hands. Yuuei would of course be their first target.

"I do however, have a reason for bringing all of you in here today. Several reasons, in fact."

An accusation, Izuku felt, was instantly about to follow.

It didn't come though.

Instead, Toshinori reached for two pictures that he had kept behind several books on his desk, and pushed them to the edge, to that the five teenagers would be able to see the faces that of the people that these images were of. The two were drastically different people. One of them was a man who appeared to be in his early to mid-twenties, with very few discernible or distinguishing features. Light, short brown hair was pretty much his only standout descriptor. His eyes seemed bloodshot, but that was about all that there was to that particular man.

The second person on the other hand was drastically different. A young girl, whom had long, dishevelled and choppy white hair that looked like it hadn't ever even been washed before. Another feature that made this girl stand out were her large red eyes. These two features were passive though. What made this girl stand out more than anything, was a small horn that extruded from the right side of her forehead. All it took was a glanced to know that this girl was Quirked.

"These are two of the people whom the police arrested last night, from the Iego incident. The man is a known Yakuza by the name of Kai Chisaki, and the young girl has only been identified as Eri." Toshinori explained. "According to some of the other people captured at the docks, Chisaki has been using this girl as part of an operation to create Quirk suppressing drugs. How exactly he's been doing this is unclear, but Eri was found with multiple bandages all over her body. The police who arrested her got rough with her, but according to reports, the only thing that she did was sit there and take the beating. She appears used to this sort of treatment."

Glancing over towards Todoroki for a second with his eyes, Izuku could see the expression that had hit the normally expressionless boy.

Regret. Disbelief. And downright abject horror. He'd entrapped this girl in an icy glacier along with hardened Yakuza, and he'd been able to sleep in a warm bed that night? From the sounds of things as well, this Eri girl had suffered a terribly abusive life, just like the scarred boy.

No wonder it shook up the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user somewhat.

"Through testing, it's been determined that Chisaki does possess a Quirk, but what exactly it can do has been unestablished. He's proven to be incredibly stubborn, and refuses to display his Quirk under any sort of circumstances. He's been transported to a prison that deals with those who have Quirks especially."

"What about this Eri girl?" Izuku questioned, still not entirely sure why this was even being told to any of them. He was still slightly surprise that nothing about the person that they had tied up had been brought up, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Toshinori sat back in his chair and let out a sign. "The police have decided that she is going to be sent to an orphanage for Quirked individuals. With professional help, this should lead to discovering not only what her Quirk is, but also teaching her how to control it, before she's moved back here in order to attend Yuuei when she's old enough. The orphanage will be located in Tokyo…" He then looked towards the dual haired boy. "Todoroki, my boy, it's the same orphanage that you attended when your Quirk was uncovered."

Surprise, shock, and a feeling of dread all seemed to hit Todoroki at once. The heterochromic boy had mentioned having no fond memories of that place, simply due to the attitude and overall inexperience that people, who may well have been well meaning, had when it came to the recent phenomenon. After all, this was when Quirks were still only a few years of age.

"I understand that to would be a lot to ask of you, but the police have requested Yuuei's assistance in escorting this girl to the orphanage." Toshinori stated, looking towards the young teenager. "I feel that it would be an enormous help were someone who has been to this orphanage be there to help the affair go smoothly. I understand that one of your siblings now works there as a volunteer."

"Fuyumi." Todoroki immediately responded with, his eyes firmly fixed onto the ground in front of his, his hands in tight fists. "She's the only one who I can think that would go out of her way to help there…"

Mina looked towards Izuku, showing nothing but confusion with her eyes. She didn't even need to say anything as to why she was confused. He was already thinking the same things that she was. "W-Why're the police asking Yuuei for help?! They don't trust people with Quirks at all, and now they want us to take someone to an orphanage for them?!"

"Their reasoning was that they thought Eri would be more receptive to other Quirked people. Plus, if anyone were to," Toshinori then made quotation gestures with his fingers. "Try anything', Yuuei would be personally held accountable."

"So they just want to wash their fucking hands of it." Katsuki flatly, and accurately, assessed with a growl of annoyance.

It seemed like the most logical assessment to come to though. The police would have no idea how to deal with this girl, especially if they didn't know what her Quirk was or how it worked, and would more than likely just be downright scared of her and what she could possibly do. Handing her off to Yuuei students would probably be in their best interest, to protect their officers, and, assuming that this Eri girl did end up harming someone, it would be someone who was Quirked. Which would be better, at least in their eyes.

Officers of the law, prepared to put teenagers at risk just because of how they were born – If that didn't sum up the society that the current world existed within, then Izuku had no idea what did.

At the same time though, he looked at the picture of Eri on the desk. She couldn't be older than five or six, and she'd already been through so much if what he'd just been told about the girl was in any way accurate. Not to mention, they had been close to her the previous night, but they just couldn't see her… So… They had been responsible for her rescue.

That was a feeling that…. Honestly made Izuku feel really, really good about himself.

Granted, they had frozen her in a giant block of ice, though they hadn't know that she was there at all. Indirect as it might have been though, that had still led to Eri being taken into police custody…

And that did honestly worry him a bit, now that he thought about how the police would have been treating her…

"I-I'll go." He volunteered, looking towards his mentor with renewed vigour and sense of responsibility. He'd led everyone else on their first outing. He'd been the one to suggest that they did this entire thing in the first place. "I… I want to make sure that this orphanage is a safe place for the girl."

Folding up his arms in response, Todoroki then spoke up. "I'll go then. As long as I'm not going on my own, I'll help show Midoriya and this girl around." It would have been one thing for the burned boy to have to take the young girl on his own, returning to a place that only reminded him of how much of an outcast himself and those who were like him were… Though he felt that he could stomach doing such a thing if he were aided by people who understood his position.

And could hold him back if he lost his calm for even just a few moments. Given his family history… While he had nothing against Fuyumi personally, the reminder might be enough to make him lose his cool… And in that event, he certainly had the Quirk capable of levelling an entire town if he wanted to.

"I'd like to go as well."

To the surprise of a lot of the people there, the next person to volunteer was Mina. While it wasn't surprising that, once Izuku had offered to go along. Mina would follow him. Her unrelenting trust in Izuku was something that was very well documented, and so she was incredibly devoted to helping him out in his goals, even if it was something as small and simple as making sure a little girl was delivered to people that could take care of her. It did strike people as a bit of an odd call on the pink girls half.

After all, this would require her to be in the public eye. She'd be a walking target for anyone who had a grudge against the Quirked, more so than pretty much anyone else who went along on this trip. Of course, the uniforms would give them away anyway, but Mina in particular would stand out like a sore thumb, and therefore would be the most likely target if people decided that they wanted to start a fight. Pink skin, oink hair, black eyes and horns would be a thousand times more difficult to try and blend into the crowds that someone with two natural hair colours.

Granted, she was probably one of the most capable people when it came to self-defence, at least when it came to her Quirk… But there wasn't any denying the sheer terror that came from just being assaulted for no reason. Mina had suffered that a lot in her life, and very recently at that. As much as she put on a brave face, there was no denying that he trauma was still there, from incidents in her past, involving family, and strangers. For her to want to risk that again… What was going through her head?

"A-Are you sure, Mina?" Izuku questioned, his voice clearly full of concern for his friend and her well-being. "Todoroki and I can handle this sort of thing on our own. Y-You don't need to put yourself out there."

"Yeah, I know you two can handle it… But I wanna help." Mina explained, holding out her hands towards Izuku like she were wanting to be literally accepted onto this particular task. "I… I want to see this orphanage. I want to see how kids're dealing with this sort of situation… I told you that I wanted to help however I could, didn't I? I meant it. I remember when my Quirk showed up, and even then, I always looked like this… And all things considered, I was pretty lucky, even if I did end up with a few scars… So I want to see. And help in some way."

Hearing that aloud genuinely felt like a knife laced with lemon juice and salt had been twisted in the black haired boys gut. There was nothing fortunate about Mina's situation whatsoever, and there was no reason at all for her to even vaguely believe so.

He wanted to say something. To yell something, to tell her that no, there was nothing even remotely okay with what had happened to her. There was nothing good, nothing fair, and absolutely nothing at all that was even vaguely acceptable. She had every single right to cry about it. To scream about it, and hide in on herself. But she didn't, and while Izuku admired that… That wasn't the same thing as basically saying that she'd learned to suck it up.

But he kept his mouth shut. Out of respect for her privacy. No one else knew about the state that her horn was in. No one knew that she had exactly been though in her home life. No one else knew… Except for him. And she trusted him with that secret…

"If Ashido wants to go along, then let her." Toshinori suggested, voicing his opinion on the matter. "It would probably do you all some good to leave the campus for a short while."

"…Alright." Though he was reluctant, Izuku agreed. He wasn't going to stop her if she really wanted to come along with the mission. He did have his objections, and concerns for her safety... But he would do his best to make sure that she was okay.

"Hang on." Katsuki was the next person to open his mouth, taking a couple of steps towards the Headmasters desk as he did so. "You sure as hell didn't need five of us here for a fuckin' babysitting job. Why're we all here?"

Reaching once more, this time into a drawer that was fitted into his desk, Toshinori handed Katsuki a few sheets of paper, with multiple writings on them. Scanning over the sheets, Katsuki quickly realized that he was holding some kind of maintenance list, filled up with supplies that only certain stores around Musutafu would be able to provide them with. All of them had Toshinori's signature on them, to verify that he had been the one to request such items, and that the bills could be sent directly to the school.

"I had planned on sending more of you out, but since Todoroki, Midoriya, and Ashido all are going to be out making sure Eri arrives to her new 'home' safely, Bakugou, I want you and Uraraka to go to the places listed here, and hand each of these papers to someone in a position to do something with them."

Katsuki took another look at the papers, and then back towards Toshinori. Then back to the papers, and then back to Toshinori. Then back to the papers, and then towards the rest of his friends, before finally back to Toshinori. "…You called us all here to run fucking errands for you? Isn't this supposed to be a job for the fucking staff who are _hired to be_ here?"

"What with the recent events down at Iego, the staff members are all being requested to remain on site for questioning by authorities. I'm unable to allow any of them to leave. However, students are free to leave the premises since we have information sheets that have both your personal data and Quirks on them. In the event that they need to speak to you, they can return to the building at any time." Toshinori explained his reasoning to them. There was something about the way that he was saying things, the way that he was explaining the reason for why he was doing what he was doing… They had been making Izuku question things from the very beginning, though he couldn't quite figure out what it was. "Yuuei staff are the closest to experts with Quirked individuals that the world currently has. I think that they're aware of this, and want us on hand to answer any questions with our collective knowledge."

Something about this just didn't seem right to Izuku…

The reasons that he gave made a lot of sense though, so it was that with an annoyed groan of irritation that Katsuki simply accepted his words. He looked towards the brown eyed girl, whom nodded.

"Alright, fine, we'll get on it."

"It might take a couple of days to go around from place to place since there's only two of you. Remember the curfew time."

"We'll be okay, sir!" Uraraka cheerfully stated, with a small bounce as she spoke.

A small nod from the taller man followed, and for what was the first time since inviting the students into his office, he made a small smile. . "Everyone can leave now, except you, Midoriya, my boy. I have some things I want to discuss with you personally."

No one really thought anything about it as they all left the room, though on reflection, they really should have. Izuku and Toshinori were well known within their group to be in the position of a mentor and a student, so no one really thought anything negative about it, even though when they would look back on it, they'd curse themselves for being such idiots.

Perhaps it was just the fact that they were so filled up with relief that they hadn't been questioned on their illegal actions, that even thought of them slipping up now just hadn't occurred to them. Maybe they felt like they had gotten away with things Scot-free. Or maybe it was just pure forgetfulness, now more focused on the assignments that they had just been given.

Why didn't matter. How they had just not thought about it didn't matter.

The fact of the matter was, suddenly, Izuku was left alone in the officer of his mentor.

For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence between the two of them, and any feeling of a warm atmosphere was gone. There was tension. A thick tension that Izuku couldn't even begin to describe. It was the same sort of feeling that he got when those motorcyclists had attacked, or when he found himself face to face with a violent person with a bone to pick with the Quirked. That feeling of being smaller than the person he was opposite. Of being weaker. Of being at a tangible disadvantage in a multitude different ways.

It was a feeling Izuku was all too familiar with. Doing what he had done for years, saving Quirked. He was used to feeling like he was trying to climb a wall without safety equipment, where one wrong move could either kill him, or cripple him for the rest of his life. He was used to feeling weak, even with his new Quirk…

Opposite of his mentor right now though… He felt even more weak. Like there was shame mixed in, like he'd somehow let his teacher down, despite trying his best to stay true to the ideals that both of them held onto.

Fifteen seconds passed, before Toshinori finally spoke.

"…What on earth drove you to it?" He asked, leaning forward and dropped the tone of his voice to a far more serious one. Far more serious than anything else that he'd used while everyone else was in the room with them.

"…How did you know?" If he had used One For All, that would have certainly been one thing. Toshinori would easily be able to recognise the Quirk that he himself still had fragments of. It would have been one thing if he's seen that… But he hadn't. There were no recordings, and even if there were, Izuku hadn't used One For All at all. So he was curious.

What had given him away?

"Only you would have this idea." Was the only reason that Toshinori needed to give, and it would have been enough, but he gave another, for good measure. "You've talked a lot about how Quirks could be useful in society… Of course this would be you." That was the only logic that he needed? His protégé wasn't sure if he should laugh or groan. That was all that he needed to be given away? "Why?"

So, that dealer they had dealt with hadn't been a part of it at all... That was a silver lining at least.

Izuku didn't answer his mentors question. Instead, he just lowered his head slightly, towards his feet.

"The position that Yuuei is in is precarious already. The school even existing is still a very hot topic for debate, not only within the government, but also in the streets. If you were caught, or something gave your ties to the school away, then it could be seen as proof that the school is full of dangerous people, and that the school itself is too risky an idea to keep working with."

It wasn't because he didn't have an answer that he could give… It was because he was struggling to find the words to put it. To explain it clearly to his mentor that, despite the risks, despite the dangers…

"I don't doubt for a second that you have the best of intentions here, but considering the risks to Yuuri, and to your own group of friends and yourself… Do you truly think that – "

"I do!"

… Heroism was something that was worth keeping up with. He truly, truly believed that.

"We've tried everything else! We tried to explain that Quirks weren't anything to be afraid of, but people still found reasons to be afraid of those who had Quirks, even when they weren't doing anything wrong!"

Another second of silence between the two of them, Toshinori's eyes widening a bit at the sudden pure conviction that Izuku displayed all of the sudden. Conviction from the young boy wasn't anything new… But it was the sheer levels of determination and dedication in his voice that surprised the older man. This was like nothing he'd seen from Izuku before.

"We've tried to show people that Quirks aren't terrifying by trying to introduce people who have Quirks with people who don't! We've tried to hide people who have Quirks, but then they made to Toe Test to identify people who had Quirks, or would develop them! We even tried to show how Quirks could help people, how they could be useful to society, and then they made Yuuei to keep us all in place! People can't even use their Quirks to defend themselves anymore! Nothing's worked… What else can we even do anymore?"

Ever since Quirks had first appeared, they had tried to make things better. People had tried to show that those who were born with these powers didn't need to be feared. That there was a possibility of their being coexistence. That in the face of an uncertain future… There could be a coexistence. A peace. A society in which both Quirked and Quirkless were able to help and build up a better world. Idealistic as it sounded, that was the complete and true dream of many…

But it had just been dashed. Destroyed. Obliterated by people who just didn't understand. People who Izuku, Quirkless and powerless, fearing that those who were born with these powers would bring about the end of their world, when all they wanted was to be a part of it.

It wasn't fair.

None of it was fair.

That was why… "…Quirks can be used to help people! And at this point, I think it might be the only way to get that across to people! I can't… I can't think of anything else! I don't know what else I can even think to do anymore!" Izuku all but yelled at his mentor, his arms flung to either side to show that he was bearing himself completely open. "Unless we do something soon… I…I don't even want to think about what could happen!" To try to punctuate the point that he was trying to make, he activated Full Cowl all around his body, sparking off the electricity that the sheer power of his ability unleashed. His veins ran red, and he held up his left fist, to show this to his mentor. "People have Quirks now! I have a Quirk now! And we can use them to help people! To make it so that people aren't afraid of our powers anymore! We can use them to save people, and stop people who try to abuse their powers! Quirks can be used to save people's lives! If we're going to suffer because we have them, we might as well use them! And if we're going to use them, then we should use them to help! And then maybe we'll be able to change people's minds!"

Toshinori sat there, looking at his protégé's technique, not having seen the Full Cowl ability beforehand. While he had known that Izuku would train with the Quirk, to simply avoid accidentally blowing his own limbs off, he hadn't expected something like this, a way in which to use his Quirk while still being unable to control the full power of the ability. It was almost like a symbol.

A symbol of dedication.

And nothing that he had said had been incorrect either. People were suffering because of Quirks that they didn't even use. The efforts to mingle Quirked and Quirkless peoples through understanding just didn't seem to be working. There was always going to be people who would hate those who had these powers, even if they were shown to be the kindest and most hard-working people out there. This prejudice wasn't something that could be taught out.

In a lot of cases, nothing would rid a large number of people of their prejudice…

But if they could be shown that they were wrong… If the world could be shown that that sort of thinking was wrong…

Then maybe. Maybe something could come from it.

Still locking eyes with Izuku's, his eyes still glowing from the sheer power that One For All granted him… Toshinori could see everything.

His dedication.

His genuine heart.

His belief.

His loyalty to his friends.

His desire to see them live better lives.

His true wish to see come true. To help people, Quirked and Quirkless. To help make a better world.

To be a Hero.

There were the reasons that he had even chosen Izuku to be the next holder of One For All in the first place. Why he'd chosen to show this boy the alternative options in this world. It was why he had faith in Izuku.

"… As the current holder of One For All, how you use the Quirk is your choice." He finally said, after a long silence. He wasn't going to be able to stop his black haired pupil without using force, something that he absolutely wasn't going to even consider. Maybe he was making the wrong call…

But he had faith in his student. In the end, as his tutor, that was all he could do anymore.

Have faith in his student, and hope for nothing but his success.

For Izuku, this was an unexpected move. A move he honestly hadn't thought would come around. Deactivating his Quirk before he allowed his hand to drop, he stared at the taller man, a mixture of disbelief and shock hitting his system. "S… You're allowing us to keep a-acting as Heroes?"

"The most that I can do it have absolute faith in you, my boy. I have no doubts in my mind that you're doing what you think it right. You've always stayed true to what you think is the right thing to do. You've shown dedication and nothing but an honest commitment to doing the right thing. I trust you to do the right thing."

That acknowledgement, and that faith… That approval…

All that the freckled boy could do was stop himself from collapsing onto his knees. That relief, and that support from his mentor… He would be eternally grateful.

"I will attempt to aid you the best I can, my boy… But you can't rely on my support. There will be times I cannot do anything for you. I urge you to remember this before doing anything reckless."

"Y-Yes sir!"

* * *

The arrival of Vigilantes, or as they would no doubt want to be known as, 'Heroes', was an… Odd development.

Why would people who possessed Quirks, who were the next step in evolution, want to fight on behalf of the Quirkless, who were now destined to be the inferior Humans on this world?

The only idea that made any sort of sense was that they were people whom seemed to have been unable to cut their ties to their origins. That felt that they maybe owed the Quirkless something, for helping bring them into this world. That they felt that, since they were the dominant people on the planet, maybe they were still subservient to them.

Perhaps it was simply a matter that they feared the Quirkless, and wanted to make themselves valuable.

Why it was that these 'Heroes' had suddenly come into play didn't matter. The issue was theta they were there.

Serving the Quirkless.

"Get the fuck off of me!"

Of course, It wasn't as if all people who were born Quirkless were inherently useless.

There were those who existed who simply remained dormant, unaware of their powers.

And even those who weren't… Simply put, they were still incredibly useful. Those who were in positions of power were absolutely vital in bringing the Quirked to glory. The abolishment of the laws against them. The removal of those who held prejudices in positions of power.

Plus, the power to bring them down to their level.

"We fucking tried to grab one of those Quirked freaks for you! It's been months! What the hell do you want now?!"

"Freaks? I find your use of that word offensive at best, and hypocritical at worst. You possess a Quirk, do you not, Ryu Sutoret?"

"Only because you gave me one!" Ryu growled, remembering his experiences with the blond boy who had the explosion Quirk, and the rest of that group back at the Hitosuta Docks. "What do you even want from me anymore? You broke me out of prison for what, a fucking rant?"

"Breaking someone out of a cell is no trouble for someone with a Warp Quirk such as Kurogiri. You remained there because I simply didn't have any reason to bring you back… Although that has changed."

With supposed Vigilantes out on the streets suddenly… This could present an opportunity. An opportunity to test the enhancement process, and to test to see how well subjscts held up with multiple Quirks.

The result's previously hadn't been very good…. But this time, with funding and equipment at his side…

All For One showed the Quirkless born man a sinister grin, as his hand began to glow a dark red colour. He spoke with a dark tone of voice as he reached out to cover Ryu's face. "You're here because I need to create my first test subject… So you, you shall become my first Nomu."

The only thing to be heard in those corridors for a while after were screams of anguish.

* * *

 **This…. Was a lot longer than I thought it was gonna be. Regardless, I liked writing this one.**

 **I got a bunch of heart-warming messages on my birthday, and (for lack of anything better to do as well) I wanted to get this chapter out because I thought you guys deserved it. Thanks so much for your support, be it in on the story, in a PM, on Pat Reon, Tumblr, the Discord I'm part of, or whatever – You guys are all amazing and I'm so happy that I get to keep bringing you content like this as often as I do, even if it does stress me out sometimes.**

 **We're starting to get into the ideas that I've had planned since early First Gen, so that'll be exciting. Next chapter – We'll get to see a bit of Bakugou and Uraraka's history. I've been thinking about that, and thought it could be fun, so that's what's next.**

 **Other than that, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you next time – See ya ^_^**


	19. Grey Clouds

As soon as Izuku had left Toshinori's office, he'd been greeted by Mina, leaning against the wall of the corridor, half asleep. She had opted to wait for him as opposed to carrying on with the rest of the group. According to her, it didn't seem right to just leave him to walk back on his own. A small gesture, but it was one that the black-haired boy appreciated nonetheless.

He told her about the conversation that he and his mentor had, about how he'd managed to guess that they were The First Generation. Initially, Mina seemed like she was about to panic, freaking out over the fact that their identities had been revealed not even twenty-four hours after having debuted. When Izuku assured her that the dishevelled appearing Headmaster supported them though, she quickly managed to calm herself down, before she made too big a commotion in the halls.

After that, with the promise that they'd talk more when they weren't in the main building, in case someone was listening, the pair of them walked back to the 1A dorms in relative silence, neither feeling the need to say much else. There wasn't any reason to. Both were tired from the previous night's mission and were probably going to end up taking a nap when they got back. Still, both were comfortable being around the other. They didn't need to talk. The company was enough between them.

"Uwaaaaaaaaa..." Mina let out a yawn of her own, this time moving her hand to her mouth to cover it up. "I'm sleepy..."

Both of them dragged their feet along the ground with each step, most of their energy sapped away, the caffeine from Izuku's earlier drink was already wearing off. He chocked it down to the stress and anxiety he'd suddenly felt from his conversation with Toshinori, which left him totally drained. He looked towards the pink girl, offering her a sympathetic smile. "You tired as well?"

"Mm… Exhausted." Seeing Mina like this was a rare sight indeed. Ever since getting to know her, and her growing comfort around him, Izuku had seen her hyperactive and energetic side more and more. Seeing her like this had become less and less common. Sleep deprivation was destined to do that to a person, he supposed. "I'm really glad we chose the weekend to make a debut…"

Izuku could only agree. He was thankful for that as well.

Despite being tired, Izuku did have a lot of things going through his already swamped head. This new assignment given to him by Toshinori, this girl, Eri… This orphanage that he was to take her to… He had to confess, orphanages disturbed him.

He'd seen only a few in his lifetime, and he'd never stepped foot inside them, but every time he'd passed by one, he'd always see the orphans. Mutated, usually, with bizarre and beautiful mutations and features. Tails, horns, wings, additional arms, varying skin colours, abnormal hair colours, just to name a few. There were many young children there who displayed none of these features though, and that was something that did disturb Izuku. He could, at the very least, understand the logic behind sending someone with a Mutation Type Quirk to one of those places. It would be impossible for them to have any kind of regular life, and sending them there might cause them less pain… But the fact there were those who showed no Mutations?

Those were the signs of parents who simply hated their child for existing, and sent them away when they found a 'fault' in their children.

Quirked orphanages were only a recent thing on the scene regarding Quirks, being about half a decade old. Places where people would send their children if they developed Quirks. If they had been active around the time Mina had been born, she would have grown up in one. Since the age of extraordinary was just beginning around her birth though, laws simply hadn't caught up, and her family didn't have the option. Frankly, she wished she had. Izuku wished she had.

Couldn't possibly be any worse than what happened to her.

Normally, they were run by Quirkless volunteers, people who didn't have prejudices, or overlooked them, in order to help these children, children who were in such desperate need of a helping hand at the early stages in their lives. A guiding source. A caring figure to help them feel they weren't alone. Izuku had always wanted to meet people like that. People who went out of their way to help the Quirked like this. He didn't have anything but respect for them.

They were the kinds of people this world needed more of.

In truth though, he was worried about this girl, this girl whom they had endangered with their actions. The girl could have very easily been injured thanks to The First Generation doing what they did, due to Todoroki's Quirk. He had to wonder, what would this girl's perspective on the issue be? Would she be thankful? Or would she be bitter? Would she be afraid of The First Generation if she met them again? Or would she show gratitude?

She was the first person that they as a group had saved, even if Todoroki had been the main one responsible for the capture, she'd always attribute it to The First Generation. So, he had to wonder, what did she think of her saviours?

Were they Heroes, or terrors who locked her in an icy prison for an entire night?

It only took a couple of minutes, but they reached their dorms quicker than Izuku expected. It felt like it had taken longer, although that could have been his fatigue talking. The dorm building was mostly quiet. Kirishima and his group could be heard in the main living space, talking about something, though neither he nor Mina paid any attention, nor particularly cared what he had to say in this particular moment. When they passed, the red haired Hardening Quirk user offered them a wave. His sudden friendliness had caught Izuku off guard when he'd first experienced it, but it did make him smile when he thought about it. Maybe it was a sign of the changes to come about?

Without a word between them still, both climbed the steps to their corridor on the fourth floor, each suppressing a yawn each on separate floors. They didn't need to really exchange words, nor did they need to even look at one another to understand. Both were tired. Both needed their rest. At least an extra hour. Maybe two. Or three.

"I'll… See you later." Izuku yawned yet again, covering his mouth as he walked over to his door. He was looking forward to getting his head down. He was already running through all the things that he needed to go over before the group went out again tonight.

A weapon could be something he needed. His Quirk was strong, yes, but not as powerful if he couldn't use it at 100%. He needed something else. Something he could use to help give him an edge. Especially if he ended up in a major fight. If he was going to patrol the streets at night, it was an inevitability.

Something that could be dangerous, but useful in the right situation…. Maybe a –

"…Could you not go?"

No sooner had Izuku's hand wrapped itself around his doorknob did Mina suddenly spring this question on him. He paused for a moment, before looking towards her. Her right hand was playing with the tufts of hair that curled around and over her cheeks, which were now a slight shade of lilac. Her eyes were slightly averted, like she was embarrassed to look at the formerly Quirkless teenager. Bashfulness wasn't something that she would display regularly, but there was something else mixed in there too. A pinch of uncertainty. Hesitation and a lingering feeling of dread. At least, that was what Izuku could swear he saw.

Two seconds passed, during which Izuku couldn't do anything but look at Mina, and wonder what was going through her head.

"I… I just…. It was hard to get to sleep." The acidic girl said, a small bite on her lips as she spoke. "I didn't really… Get much last night. Not because of the patrol… Well, it was that a little." She admitted, before letting go of her hair, and bringing her hands together. "I uh…"

"Go on..." Izuku gently encouraged her. His hand left the doorknob to his room, and gently hung by his side, willing to wait for as long as she needed to regain her composure. He offered her a soft, reassuring smile that, without words, told her she could talk to him.

Another second's hesitation from Mina followed, before she finally found her voice. "…To be honest… I haven't been sleeping too well lately. Ever since… I found out my brother is working here."

Considering what she'd told him of her past, Izuku didn't blame her for a moment. It didn't even surprise him that she'd had difficulties sleeping after just being around her brother again. Speaking to him wasn't a requirement for getting her all worked up like this. After some of the things he'd seen, that he'd saw do, what he'd heard people could do, and how he saw people act, sometimes it did amaze him how he was ever able to get any rest himself. The brutal injustices that he learned of day by day disturbed him. Haunted him. And Mina had to live through that sort of torment… He couldn't think of a single person who would be able to after the ordeals she'd suffered through, and the scars she still bore to this day.

"…The last night I actually got any decent rest… Was when you were with me…"

On the other hand, that part did surprise him, and made his own cheeks heat up.

Both of them stood there, sheepishly looking towards one another, Mina with a shy smile, and Izuku with a flustered mess of an expression that Mina couldn't really describe as a frown, but couldn't say was a smile either. It was amusing, to say the very least. It was a fact about him that she thought was going to amuse her until she went to the grave. Despite being capable, bold and brave enough to take on other people, dangerous people, psychotic people, to say nothing of the lunatics who would be running around with Quirks… He still was the same awkward teen underneath it all.

Average in just about every single way other that his sheer dedication to his beliefs.

It was a cute reaction, Mina had to think to herself, but it didn't change anything, as far as she was concerned. Nothing she had said had in any way been untrue though.

Nightmares and memories of her days back at home still haunted her, and had continued to ever since she left. The sorts of things that happened to a person under those conditions simply didn't just go away because a person didn't like to remember them. It was just the way that the Human brain worked. Trauma could remain with someone for a long time. She thought, after a while, she had managed to get over, or at least get past everything that had been done to her.

She'd managed to not think about it in a long time. She hadn't lost sleep over it. She'd moved on…

The appearance of her brother had proven her wrong though.

Oh, so very wrong.

That same night that the two of them had narrowly avoided being caught by Mina's brother and the other guards had been as harrowing for Izuku as it had been for the pink girl. How he had seen it shake her to the very core... It wasn't something he was soon to forget. Her total collapse in person had disturbed him. Seeing her like that... He hadn't recognized the person he'd held all the way back to the dorms. Like he was just guiding some sort of husk that had Mina's skin. The thought of seeing her like that again made him shudder.

Awkward a person though he was... He was able to offer help for her. "I..." He bit his lip, feeling the need to avert his eyes as he asked. His already red cheeks were reddening even brighter. "... I can... S-Stay with you again I-if you... T-think that might help..."

"I… I'd like that."

Izuku smiled softly, and nodded, and followed her into her room, though he did a quick look around the area to make sure no one saw him enter her room. Rumours were the last thing that he needed.

Mina's room was messier than Izuku remembered seeing it last time. Lots of clothes and the likes just strewn all over the place. Mina wasn't necessarily the most organized person in the world, not that it was a major issue. Given the madness of the last few days, he didn't even blame her for her lack of cleanliness. She had other things that she had needed to be worried about first and foremost.

She hadn't been careless enough to leave her Hero Costume lying around. He was just glad about that, more than anything.

The pair of them sat on Mina's bed, next to one another. There was a certain kind of serenity about this, just them, being alone. A certain kind of calm that was so rare to get in this world anymore. So much injustice and violence made it near enough impossible to acquire. Mina rested her head on Izuku's shoulder, and he didn't react to it at all, allowing her to use him as a pillow.

Whatever she needed.

"…Hey, Midori?" Her voice was quiet.

"Yeah?"

"…Something's been bugging me for a while now. About Uraraka, and Bakugou."

"Kacchan and Uraraka?" Izuku blinked, looking down at her. "What about them?"

"…Can you tell me why Uraraka and him are on such good terms?" She asked. "You said something about her saving him… And Bakugou seems… Like the sort of person she'd normally avoid, you know?"

To an outsider, Izuku understood why she'd think that. He had forgotten that Mina hadn't been with them from the beginning. That she hadn't seen what had happened that day. Of course she would be confused. Sometimes, it felt like he'd know this girl all his life. He certainly felt close enough to her.

He let out a small sigh and looked towards the ceiling. "Well… Basically, we met her a little under a year ago…"

* * *

Katsuki felt his fingers drumming against the knuckles on his opposing hands, both concealed within the pocket of the hoodie he wore, black in colour. He kept the hood down. He didn't particularly have it in him to care so much if someone recognized him. What were they gonna do? Attack him?

He welcomed the idea. Practically relished the opportunity to knock some heads together.

It would cause a scene, no doubt, but he couldn't bring himself to care about that either. He wouldn't be the one responsible for it, but if someone wanted to throw down, he wasn't going to back down. Even if Izuku didn't want him to.

And want him to, Izuku did not. "Calm down, Kacchan."

"I hate waiting." Came the simple response from the red eyed teenager. "She's in a fucking train. Trains go fast. How long does it take?"

"It'll take as long as it takes." His Quirkless friend sighed, and pulled up his phone. He scrolled through a few pages, and then showed it to him. "Here. The timetables say that her train should arrive from the Mei Prefecture in a few minutes."

The blond looked around the train station after taking hold of his friend's phone. The Mei Prefecture was at the western side of the country, and they were near the capital. Both areas were at opposing sides of the country to one another. Of course it would take a while, though he didn't understand why they hadn't just arrived when her train was due, instead of waiting here for three hours. Izuku liked to think, so maybe that was why they had waited here. That was the only logic he could think of though.

Around them were people going to and from various placed. Lots of them were leaving the prefecture. Some would just be going to neighbouring cities. Curiosity always did take hold of Katsuki after a short while when he found himself in crowded placed. How many people here had Quirks like him?

How many of these people were hiding their powers? How many people here were trying to escape from the registration? Or in this case, how many were fleeing to this area? In the hopes of the bullshit promise that was Yuuei?

His finger slid over the screen to bring up the student information file Izuku had spent the last few hours reading up on. Ochako Uraraka. One more stupid Goddamn moron who fell for Yuuei's crap.

"Remind me – Why is this chick coming here a full year early?"

"Kacchan, did you even pay any attention to Toshinori-sensei?"

"Did I fuck."

Izuku sighed again. "She has a Quirk that can really help with contracting the building, and she's offered her powers to the construction team in return to a place to stay." It was the very short version, but it was the cut and dry of it.

"Okay, so why does she want to come here early?"

"I don't know. I don't know everything about her." He scratched at his black hair before checking the timetable. "You can ask her yourself in about five minutes."

"And why do _we_ have to pick her up?"

"… You… Really paid no attention, did you?" Izuku couldn't help but let out a bemused chuckle. "Toshinori-sensei has a lot to do right now. He's got to deal with meetings with the city council, and the construction crew, as well as reviewing applications and signing off on those who are mandatory students…" Izuku held hit tongue for a moment, remembering the bitterness that Katsuki felt for being forced to attend Yuuei. His friend didn't react though, so he continued. "…Sorry. Anyway, he asked us to, you know… Collect her. Get her back to Yuuei."

"Why?"

"Better that she meets someone she'll be attending classes with I suppose. She'll be more likely to trust someone with a Quirk. Otherwise I would've come on my own…"

"…You would've done nothing of the fucking sort." It was gruff, and it sounded almost like an insult or slander, but it was Katsuki's way of saying that it didn't matter why they were here. At the end of the day, he had Izuku's back. He trusted him and owed him that much.

He was the only person to stand by him when his Quirk was exposed. And he wouldn't dare betray that level of faith and loyalty. Katsuki and Izuku disagreed on lots of things. Izuku attempting to enter Yuuei. His altruistic nature towards everyone, regardless of nature or power. His idealistic beliefs. None of them sat well with the Explosion Quirk user… But he wouldn't abandon Izuku because of them. That wasn't the kind of person that he was.

He'd never say it, but Izuku would always know what he meant.

"…Thanks, Kacchan." Izuku smiled softly, grateful for his friend and his support, even if he knew that the two weren't in agreement.

Katsuki's disagreement came from his stance towards those who willingly accepted, and even volunteered themselves to be pinned into a prison. To him, these were people who had simply given up. Who would sell out their own pride and freedom, let the Quirkless perform whatever the hell they wanted to them, if it meant that they would feel safe. He saw it as people living in a fantasy land, in a world in which the Quirkless would respect them if they remained at Yuuei.

It was a joke. And anyone who thought that being in Yuuei would protect them wasn't right in their head.

Like this Ochako Uraraka. He hadn't even met this girl yet, and his opinion of her had dropped straight to the bottom. He made no secret of his dislike towards her as well. Some could call him hypocritical, given his utter contempt of prejudicial Quirkless, but they could go to Hell. He and this Uraraka girl were in the exact same boat. Both of them had Quirks.

And she had given up. He was still fighting, and intended to fight until the last breath. As far as he was concerned, that was the only assessment of character that he would ever need with this girl.

For the next few minutes, neither he nor Izuku spoke. Izuku read up some more about this Uraraka girl, while Katsuki just remained staring off into space, unfeeling and uncaring. He watched the clock tick, watched as the second of the day passed him by carelessly. One minute passed. Then two. Then five.

Until finally, the train they had been awaiting finally pulled into the station. The brakes made the wheels screech against the train tracks, and then, after a few seconds of total silence, the doors opened, and people began to leave the train. Businessmen, holiday makers, foreigners eager to explore this city so close to the capital, all sorts of people began to flock out.

"Kacchan, pass me the sign." Izuku said, standing up on his tip-toes, trying to spot the girl.

"Yeah, yeah." He rummaged around in his friend's backpack, until his found a sheet of A3 paper, folded in half, with the name 'Ochako Uraraka' written as large as Izuku had been able to manage with the space that he had to work with. With an outstretched arm, he handed it over to his green-eyed companion. "Here."

"Thanks." Without further ado, Izuku held the sign above his head, hoping that wherever this Uraraka girl was, she would be able to spot her name. He had used red ink, hoping that it would make it stand out more against the white paper.

After a couple of minutes, the pair of them were approached by a brown-haired girl.

Katsuki needed to take a few seconds, but he recognized the girl from her picture. She had a pair of long bangs that went in front of her ears, and down past her chin, and the rest of her it was moderately puffy, particularly at the back. Her eyes were the same colour as her hair – And there wasn't really much else to make of her.

She looked entirely Human. No mutations that he could see.

"Are you the guys from Yuuei?" She asked, though the answer should have been obvious.

"Yeah, that's right." Izuku said, smiling as he held out his hand for her to shake. "I'm Izuku Midoriya. Toshinori-sensei sent me and Kacchan to come collect you. It's good to meet you." Katsuki noted how much calmer Izuku was around girls than he had been a few years ago. In this sort of situation, he'd've been flustered to the point of hilarity. Dealing with Quirks, with the situation surrounding them getting more and more dangerous, had forced him to mature quicker. Grow up faster.

Anyone with a Quirk had to deal with that same thing.

"It's good to meet you too, Midoriya. And uh…" Uraraka looked towards Katsuki with a raised eyebrow. "…Kacchan?"

"Katsuki Bakugou." He growled. "Welcome to a fucking city prison. Or you can call it home. Whichever you feel like."

"Kacchan…"

"I'm not wrong, Deku." Katsuki flatly stated, before glaring at Uraraka again. He turned around just as quickly as he'd looked at her. "Whatever. Let's get her the fuck to Yuuei."

Without another word, he made his way out the front of the train station, already looking for the nearest public transport to take them to the future school for the Quirked, leaving behind an exhausted Izuku, and confused Uraraka.

"Well… He's… Angry." The new arrival noted. For a first impression, it wasn't exactly the most positive of experiences.

"S…Sorry, about him." Izuku apologized to Uraraka on his friends behalf awkwardly, scratching the back of his head as he did so. "He – He isn't a bad guy. Kacchan… He's also going to be attending Yuuei, only he didn't get a choice like you. He's being forced to attend."

"He's being forced? What, are his parents forcing him to go?"

"Not… Exactly. He and his…" Izuku paused, before deciding to stop. "…You should probably hear it from him." That was personal information that he didn't want to indulge, not without Katsuki there to tell him when to stop. "…But he's being made to go by law. He doesn't really think of Yuuei as being a particularly good thing…"

For only knowing the two of them for less than two minutes, Uraraka seemed to be surprisingly understanding, nodding her head like she wasn't even surprised. She seemed to accept Izuku's explanation without further questioning. She didn't pry or ask any more questions, instead simply accepting the answer.

* * *

The trio would return the same way that the duo had arrived – Using public transport systems. Busses and coaches would make their usual routes around the train stations to pick up the various number of people coming in and to drop off the people who needed to go long distance. There were a large number of taxi's that did the same, and while they would have been faster, Izuku didn't trust cab drivers when he was with people who were Quirked.

Who knew what they could do? And there wouldn't be any witnesses either if they did get attacked.

If it had just been him and Katsuki, it may have been different. Katsuki had no obvious mutations. When he had further inspected Uraraka closer though, he noticed the finger pads that she had on each and every finger digit. If someone was observant, they would be a dead giveaway.

So it was that Izuku decided that they'd get a bus. Even if they were attacked, there would be more witnesses, and people would be less likely to try anything, even if they knew that two of the three of them were Quirked.

As the three of them waited, Izuku and Uraraka acquainted themselves further. He questioned her a bit on her background based on what he had read on her profile. In turn, she had suggested that it was a bit creepy that he knew so much about her. It was the first time in their interactions that Izuku had gotten flustered, which did at the very least earn a small chuckle from Katsuki.

Nothing further than that though.

By Izuku's recommendation, Uraraka had slipped on a pair of gloves that he had purchased for her. He said that it would make moving around the city safer. That had irked his blond friend.

Further hiding what the Quirked were.

He knew that Izuku's intention wasn't simply to hide, and that he was, at the end of the day, thinking purely about keeping the new arrival safe, but it still irritated Katsuki that they had to hide at all. They hadn't done anything wrong, so why should they have to hide the mutations that they hadn't had any choice but to be born with?

How many people couldn't even leave their homes anymore because of their mutations? The fact Izuku didn't ever consider these things annoyed the Explosion Quirk user.

…But Izuku couldn't' account for everything. In the back of his mind, he knew that very well. He knew that Izuku could only help so many people, and he could only help those who were right in front of him. He couldn't just knock on doors and see if someone there had a mutation. He couldn't be everywhere at once. He couldn't do everything. His friend wasn't perfect, and he wasn't omnipotent. Katsuki knew this, deep down. And he knew Izuku wanted to help. That was the only thing that was ever in his mind, without even thinking about himself. It was like self-preservation simply didn't exist within Izuku. That all there was in him was the altruist. The person who lived solely to help others. No matter the cost to himself.

A middle school dropout. An outcast. Looked at by those who knew his opinions and actions like he was Quirked himself. Many suspected he hid a Quirk. Or that he was destined to someday get one.

But he wasn't, and Katsuki was glad. If there was one person who didn't deserve this sort of treatment, it was Izuku.

It was just… Frustrating. Having to rely on him. Having to do what he said just so he wouldn't get attacked in the streets. Knowing that Izuku was right but hating that he was. Having to owe so much to someone who was sticking his neck out for no reason other than his head just telling him that it was the decent thing to do. Being best friends with someone so altruistic. Things would be easier if he was as selfish as so many other Quirkless.

At least he'd show a sense of self-preservation and wouldn't need to rely on his Quirked friend for protection.

From the corner of his eye, he could see as Izuku was fiddling around with his wallet to pass out tickets for everyone as the bus pulled in, Uraraka turning her head, and looking at him. Like she was inspecting him, looking for something that made this guy tick. It was like she was trying to look at him, but saw that what she was looking at wasn't him. Like it was a suit of armour, shield in one hand, and sword in the other.

His red eye met her brown ones. She didn't look away.

Even when Katsuki turned his head so he was full on, unambiguously glaring right back at her, she didn't turn her head away at all.

"Kacchan, here's your ticket."

Stepping in front of his line of sight and snapping the blond out of his staring contest, Izuku held up a one-use ticket for Katsuki to use. The Explosion Quirk user suddenly heard the sound of the bus's engines rattling next to him, and he saw that in his thoughts and stare down, the rest of the world had been blocked out to him. His eyes darted from Izuku, to the bus, to Izuku again, and then to the ticket.

"Right. Thanks." He muttered, snatching the ticket and walking past Izuku.

Izuku didn't think anything of it. The sheer annoyance at their situation, Katsuki had made abundantly clear. He'd calm down once they had dropped Uraraka at Yuuei and gone home. For now, this was just something that he was going to have to deal with.

Motioning for Uraraka to follow him, Izuku followed Katsuki onto the large vehicle, with Uraraka close behind him. The bus was empty, for otherwise a few others that Izuku spied through the window, though he couldn't get a proper look at their facial features. Once he handed in his ticket to the driver, he turned to located where Katsuki was sitting.

Only to walk straight into the guy.

"Oof!" The air briefly left Izuku's lungs for a moment as he regained his footing. He had been greeted by his taller friends back, unmoving from the first couple of steps onto the bus. "Kacchan, what're you –"

"Deku?"

When he heard that voice, his own blood ran cold, and his muscles stiffened. It didn't take him long to find the source - The only other people on the bus. He had to blink a couple of times when he saw them, and his eyes only got wider when he realized it really was them.

The members of their old group. The ones that had thrown Katsuki to the wind when they learned of his Quirk. Their old friends. Old being the correct term.

Kokeha Hitokura, Yuhando Kemuri and Tsubasa Akuma.

Izuku recognized all one of the immediately, even though he hadn't seen them in quite a while. The way that they had departed had been less than friendly, the three of them all hurling abuse towards Katsuki, and Izuku having to both stop Katsuki from blowing the three of them up, and try to verbally defend him. He'd come very close to throwing a few punches himself.

Not a good day for either of the two of them. But for Katsuki, it was one of the worst. Izuku could see just how betrayed he felt, even if he hated to say or show it in the slightest. It might have been the closest that Izuku had seen Katsuki come to crying ever since he developed his Quirk, and outside of when his parents had disowned him. The latter of which he'd allowed himself to shed a few furious tears.

Now though, he looked a mixture of both mortified and homicidal.

"Oh no…" Izuku could only quietly say to himself. His eyes fluctuated, looking between the three of them, Katsuki, with his fingers and palms already twitching, and Uraraka, who was no doubt utterly confused by everything that was happening right in front of her.

If he didn't act quickly, this was going to end in an absolute disaster. Biting down against his own teeth, he made a snap decision.

"H-Hey!" He quickly waved in response and began to push Katsuki down the aisle. He had to use both hands and put in a lot of force to make the taller boy move. He could virtually feel the surprise, and then sudden rage from the angry teen.

What the _fuck're you_ – "

"I'll run interference." He whispered to his friend, quickly and firmly, before they were close enough for their three old classmates to hear. "I'll talk to them until we reach our stop, hopefully keep their attention off you." A pause as he considered, but really, he knew he didn't have any other choice. "You look after Uraraka."

"Me?! Why the fuck should I – "

He didn't get another word in before Izuku had shoved him towards the back of the bus. Being so forceful wasn't normally the sort of style that he liked to do things, but this was the sort of situation that called for it. He had his recent muscle training to thank for his newfound strength, otherwise he doubted he' would have been been able to move Katsuki at all.

Turning around, he made a notion for Uraraka to go at sit with Katsuki. It seemed to take her a few seconds for the brown-haired girl to even understand what he was doing or telling her to do – she had no frame of reference for this. To her, it just looked like he was showing her the underside of his chin. It wasn't until Katsuki blatantly pointed to the seat next to him that she got the message and walked past Izuku and towards the angry teen.

The bus began to move, and so began an hour-long journey back to the same stop that the two boys had gotten on their way to the station.

For the vast majority of the journey, Katsuki didn't speak, or even particularly turn his head all that much. He instead kept his gaze fixed on the passing outside world, watching the scenery as the bus travelled. For a long time, there wasn't much to be seen. Concrete and people walking to and from wherever, doing whatever. He had little to comment on or really react to. Like back at the train station, he had to wonder, how many of these people were Quirked, hiding their powers in the hopes of being able to live a vaguely normal life? How many of these people were going to be able to hide their powers, and for how long? At the same time, he wondered how many of them were supporters of Quirked rights. How many of these people would go to bat for the freedom of those who had developed these superpowers?

Depressingly few, he imagined.

It wasn't until they reached the inner city, when their ride was coming to an end, that he began to truly hate what he saw. The closer to the Yuuei building site they got, the more intense anti-Quirked sentiment became. Fliers and protestors trying to rally others against the construction of Yuuei were scattered throughout the main city, shouting off nonsense and whatever else they could think of the horrify the local population into joining their side. Fear tactics and outright lies. Half-truth's. Whatever.

Izuku sometimes suggested that some of the more outlandish claims were a matter of ignorance. That the Quirkless simply didn't know any better, that if they could just be shown somehow that Quirks weren't inherently dangerous, then a lot of the bad will towards the Quirked would disappear - He said that as he hung out nearly every day with someone who generated literal explosions from his palms.

Katsuki had no idea what it was going to take, but it was certainly going to take a lot more than what Izuku seemed to think it would.

Scowling, he couldn't bring himself to keep looking out the window. If he kept watching what the idiots of the city kept spouting, he'd lose his mind. His attention quickly fell onto Izuku and the other three scumbags. They seemed to be getting along like nothing had ever happened between them. Tsubasa seemed to be retelling Izuku something that had happened a few weeks ago to him and Yuhando, which the pudgy teenager seemed to find nothing but hilarious. If the topic of Quirks had been brought up between the four of them, he didn't know. For the last three quarters of an hour, he'd blocked out nearly all the sound surrounding him, uncaring for what they spoke of.

He knew Izuku wasn't going to be swayed by this. He wasn't about to betray his beliefs just because he ran into these guys. Still, the sight of it made the explosive boy scowl.

"What's got you so upset?"

Upon returning to look at the girl sitting next to him, Katsuki had to blink a few times – He'd more or less forgotten that this girl was even there, neverminded what her name was supposed to be. He simply hadn't bothered to commit it to memory. "What difference does it make to you?"

"…You've had that look on your face since the train station." Uraraka noted, pointing at his scowl with a covered-up finger. "And…" Her face scrunched up, and she glanced back to the black-haired boy who was friends with the blond. "…Was it Midoriya?..."

"Yeah."

"Midoriya – He… Said that you and your parents weren't on good terms." When an expression of pure rage emerged, she quickly held up both hands. "He - He didn't tell me what happened! He said I should hear it from you! I only mentioned it because… You seem angry, and I'm guessing they at least had something to do with that?"

The Quirked boy's hands twitched as he thought back. He remembered that single day with such detail that he just didn't want to. The yelling. The crying. The rage and disgust his mother and father showed to their own son for something he had no way to control. The throwing. A smack across the face, and then being shoved out into the rain.

Rage suddenly subsided, and his hands relaxed. Thinking about it, directly… Remembering what happened… It took a lot of his rage and swapped it with depression. Remorse. Regret. As much as he hated with a burning fury both of his parents, and would be glad to let them rot for what they'd done… At the same time, if he could go back and somehow prevent it from happening, he would. To anyone who knew the tell-tale signs, the source of Katsuki's rage was clear. Why so many tolerated him even with his abrasive personality.

He was hurting just as much as anyone else. Deep down, he was still just a teenager who felt the sheer pain of being abandoned.

Still, he gave Uraraka her answer. "…My parents fucking threw me out when they learned I had a Quirk."

Shock was clear on the girl's face.

"…I developed my powers when I was four." Katsuki went on, looking down at his palms as he did so. "My Quirk isn't exactly subtle. I battered a fucking playground with it after I freaked out and ran away from home. Deku was the one who helped me in the end."

"Deku?"

With a look at Izuku, Katsuki nodded. "Quirkless bastard's done more for me since than my parents did. He helped me hide my Quirk for nearly a fucking decade. Those pricks he's with now? They used to be part of our group. They turned on me the second they figured out I had a Quirk too. Deku's the only one who stood up for me. Stopped me from doing something that I would have got thrown in jail for. I don't know what it's like wherever the fuck you come from, but here, Quirked are lucky if they can even walk on the sidewalk without getting their heads bashed in."

In a small gap between his sentences, Izuku could be heard laughing along with the three of them. It sounded genuine.

"…Deku's the only person I've ever met who stands up for people who have Quirks. He and his mother took me in after my parents disowned me. At this point, he's basically my fucking brother."

Why Katsuki was telling this girl so much, he didn't really know. He supposed that it came down to not having anyone else to really talk to. The only other people he even vaguely knew aside from Izuku and his mother was Toshinori, Izuku's mentor, and speaking to him was… Difficult, especially since he was going to be the head of Yuuei. Bluntly put, Katsuki struggled to trust him. So talking now, the words just sort of… Tumbled out. He couldn't stop them.

"…My parents were… Supportive." Uraraka said, quietly.

The red eyed boy watched as she took her glove off her left hand and looked directly at her finger pads. They were sort of like the ones that one could see on the paws of a cat. They were subtle, but if someone took a closer look, they'd be able to see her mutation.

"…My family is really poor. Like… dirt poor. They own a construction company, and business… Well, it's not always great. I wanted to help them. When I developed my Quirk… My parents were really kind and supported me. They didn't treat me any differently. When I started to try things out, they supported everything I did. Trying to increase my weight limit. Seeing what that weight limit was. Seeing how long I could make something float…"

"Float?"

"I was gonna help them with their construction company. With a Quirk like mine, I could have helped save so much money on things like construction equipment… But I can't." She looked towards the ground and sighed. "There are licences you can get to let you use your Quirks for labour back where I'm from. I guess the laws are laxer there… But to get one? It's… Really expensive… That's why I decided to come to Yuuei."

"Huh?"

"My parents supported my idea of helping them with business, and put money aside to help me get a licence. There isn't really a whole lot else someone with a Quirk can do for work, is there? But… When I heard about Yuuei… I thought about how much money my parents could save if they didn't have to… Take care of me."

Things suddenly began to line up in Katsuki's head. He felt his eyes widen slightly and his eyebrows burrow. "You chose to come to Yuuei so early to save your parents money?"

"It sounds bad when you say it like that." Uraraka joked, though she nodded her head as she finished. "That's… More or less the reason though. You need to understand, they barely made enough money to feed themselves. The number of times they went hungry, just so I could eat… If I can go somewhere else to help them in just a small way, then it's worth it to me."

Something, somewhere inside the Quirked boy resonated with his girl suddenly. Despite all his anger and barely repressed rage, his aggression and distrust for most people, he wasn't unaware that not all Quirkless people were prejudiced or scummy towards the Quirked. Many would be sympathetic and would call out the hypocrisy and violations of basic Human rights that these anti-Quirked movements would bring out. But in his life, they were too few and far between. He barely ever met any of them. Izuku was one of the only ones.

It became easy to forget about the cases where Quirkless parents would love and care for their child, even if they had a Quirk. And for Uraraka to so willingly leave a home like that, to come to Yuuei as early as she did, just to try to help them…

"…That's… Admirable."

He respected that. He could respect that kind of selflessness.

The second that final word left his mouth, the bus began to stop, moving slowly as the driver figured out how he was going to approach the turning point and park up to let his passengers off. A quick glance out the window revealed that this was the stop that the three of them had been waiting to get off at. Katsuki got onto his feet, and motioned for the brown-haired girl to get off the bus first. He followed shortly after.

As the two of them made their way to the front, Izuku got up from his seat. He had a smile on his face, the kind that showed honest amusement and enjoyment. "Okay, this is our stop."

"Hey, it's been good catching up with you, Deku."

"Yeah dude, it's been way too long."

"I'll try not to be a stranger." The green-eyed boy said with a smile. With a final wave and a wish farewell, Izuku re-joined Katsuki and Uraraka, with that same smile that just refused to leave his lips.

It was met with a quirked eyebrow and an odd look. "You look like you had fun." Katsuki commented flatly.

"Y'know, they actually seem a lot better than they did back in middle school. They even seem to have changed their minds on the Quirked."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! I mean… It doesn't excuse what they did to you… But they seem to be on their way."

"So why didn't they mention anything about feeling bad about the shit they pulled on me?"

"They did actually." Izuku said as the bus pulled up and the doors opened. "I think Tsubasa wants to try and get in touch at some point. To say sorry."

The three of them walked off the bus, Uraraka only able to smile as she listened into the conversation between the two boys. Izuku's smile turned into very light laughing, and Katsuki's scowl…. Well, it remained a scowl, but it wasn't as ugly or fuelled by anger as it normally was. As the three of them stepped onto solid ground, Katsuki turned his head to take a look at his old classmates through the window. Maybe… Just maybe there was –

No other word described the sound that came next as anything but a 'Whok.' A hollow but hard sound at the same time. It was an unmistakable sound, even to someone who hadn't heard it before.

The sound of bone being struck.

Izuku's smile and expression didn't even change as he fell to the ground. He still maintained his smile and optimistic expression until the second that his face hit the gravel. Once he hit the floor, he was unmoving. He didn't even twitch. No movement. Not even a reaction to slamming straight onto the ground.

"Sorry about this, Deku, but it's better if you're not involved in this." A metal pipe in hand, Tsubasa stood over the limp body of Izuku, using his foot to push him to the side. The large boy brought his eyes up to make eye contact with Katsuki. "It's been a while, hasn't it Katsuki? I've been meaning to get back in touch."

Confused and horrified, Uraraka's voice was anything but calm when it finally came. "Wh – What's going on?!"

Heavy breathing came from the blond boy, his hands suddenly at either side, his fingers twitching rapidly. He looked at Tsubasa, and then behind him, and saw Yuhano and Kokeha pulling out weapons of their own from a large bag that they must have had loaded in case they ran across someone Quirked. Yuhando seemed to talk to the bus driver for a second, before placing a stack of bank notes on the counter, followed by him stepping off entirely. For a moment, the bus driver looked at the situation in front of him.

And then closed the doors and drove off, abandoning the two Quirked teenagers, and leaving Katsuki and Uraraka against three – And Katsuki would call them what they truly were –

"You… You fucking vermin!..." His words came through ragged breath and furious anger that he wasn't even bothering to keep repressed. No one else was around. He would yell all he fucking wanted. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"

"Deku isn't the guy we've got an issue with. He's Quirkless." Kokeha stated, holding up his weapon of choice, a baseball bat, for Katsuki to clearly see. "You on the other hand – We all saw your Toe Test. Quirked." The final word was spat out with venom, indicating the pure hatred the black-haired teenager held towards Quirk holders.

"He'll be fine." Tsubasa assured him, before taking a look at Uraraka and Katsuki. "More than I can say for you two. If she's with you, she'd bound to be Quirked, right?" There wasn't even any cohesive logic to it – He was just throwing around assumptions to try to justify his soon to come violence.

"You bastards!" Roared the Explosion Quirk user, unleashing the unrepressed fury in his stomach. "You fucking fucks! Deku didn't do a fucking thing to you fuckers! He actually gave you the benefit of _the fucking doubt_! He didn't do anything!"

"Why do you think I knocked him out?" The sheer arrogance on display did nothing to calm Katsuki, now flared up and ready to throw punches. "He'd get in the way. You and that freak behind you are the only two we're interested in." Tsubasa literally spat on the ground as he looked at the red-eyed boy. "Not enough that you freaks get to live in the city, you've now got a school being built for you. Nice, hot meals and a place to sleep – All that's going to do is attract more of you freaks here."

"We're the deterrent." Kokeha said, that trademarked shit eating grin all over his face. "If we rough a few of you freaks of nature up, that should get the message that we don't want your kind around."

They hadn't changed a bit. Nothing had changed with these three. But they had fallen so much further than even Katsuki had expected. They had fallen into nothing but violent punks Bigoted parasites. He'd honestly expected better. He'd grown up with these people. They were supposed to be above this… But that invisible barrier didn't exist. That supposed line that people were suspected of being above just wasn't real. Without such a line having a literal existence, anyone would change into scum like this.

If there was ever any proof of that, it stood right before Katsuki right now.

There wasn't anything left that Katsuki held for these people. No sense of regret or rejection for what had happened, no remorse or desire to hide what he was. He was just thoroughly fucking furious.

"I wonder." Yuhando sneered, his weapon of choice being another piece of metal pipe, which he patted against his open left hand. "How many hits with this thing do you think it's gonna take to draw blood? A few to the head ought to do it."

"Why don't _you fuckers bring it and_ _ **find it the fuck out?!"**_ Bellowed the infuriated Quirked, taking one heavy step forward and throwing his arms out to either side.

His friend was hurt, and it had been done for no good reason, and he had every single intention of beating these bastards within an inch of their lives. That said, he was acutely aware of his disadvantage in this scenario – Uraraka was here, and he doubted that she had a combat bone in her body. Given the sheer fortune that she'd had throughout her life, it was honestly a possibility that she hadn't seen this sort of attack against Quirked people whose only crime was being Quirked. Not in person at least. And for all the problems he stated to have, he refused to just let these bastards attack someone who hadn't done anything.

He didn't know what her Quirk was capable of. For all he knew, she had the power to create glitter, so he couldn't rely on her for assistance. On top of that, the simple fact was that not everyone was a fighter. But God knew what they would do if they decided to attack Izuku.

So, he had to both defend and attack at the same time

"K-Katsuki!" It was the most recent name she'd heard the angry blond being called, so it was the one Uraraka went for. Normally he would berate her for acting so damn informal with him, but right now he couldn't bring himself to even slightly care. Her voice seemed pitched and uncomfortable, unsurprisingly.

"Stay behind me." He ordered simply. She would be far less trouble if she wasn't in the middle of the fight. It made her easier to defend.

For a moment here was a totally silent standoff. It wasn't entirely clear if his old classmates actually expected Katsuki to just go down without a fight, or they were just trying to stare him down, to make him back off, to intimidate him. Perhaps they were just trying to get inside his head. To psyche him out. Maybe this had worked on the various other Quirked who were more cowardly than him. Or maybe they were the ones who were afraid.

It was a solid fifteen seconds of glaring one another down, of not moving, of hardly even breathing.

Until suddenly, Tsubasa charged straight for Katsuki, his weapon charged up for a left-to-right swing, aiming to strike his old classmate squire in his temple.

He telegraphed his attack so obviously though, it wasn't even a challenge for the Quirked teenager to avoid the attack. He ducked underneath the strike and took a step forward. He primed his right arm, and swung his trademarked right hook, his palm wide open.

They knew that he had a Quirk, that much was true, but there was something that they didn't know. Tsubasa's ignorance made his opponent grin ear to ear.

None of them knew exactly what Katsuki's Quirk was. He never displayed his power in front of them. None of them knew exactly what to expect.

With ferocious force, and without holding a single thing back, the second his hand slammed against Tsubasa's head, the blond unleashed a massive explosion. The sheer force and size of the strike engulfed the larger boys head, and threw him aside like he wasn't anything more than a pebble.

Once his former friend had crashed into the pavement and the smoke had cleared, Katsuki looked up and glared at the Yuhando and Kokeha, and detonated a small series of explosions within his palms, demonstrating his firepower. Sparks flew from his skin, emerging into larger, more clear detonations. His red eyes glared right into their grey and black ones respectively, like they were daggers and glares could kill. "Right – Who the fucks next?!"

Yuhando was the one who moved next. Apparently more angry than he was intimidated, he charged towards Katsuki and swung his weapon at him randomly and haphazardly, no skill or precision was on display, showing how little practice he had with weapons like this. In a way, it made it much more difficult to dodge his attacks. No rhyme or rhythm to the strikes, no fighting style to counter. No predictable pattern. Nothing that Katsuki could use to aid his evasion.

Some came close to hitting him. "You freak!" The scruffy headed Quirkless teenager yelled, launching an upwards swipe, aimed at the jaw.

Katsuki jumped back as Yuhando attacked him, and suddenly threw his right hand into a right hook attack aimed right at the weapon. The explosion that followed blasted the weapon right out of Yuhando's grip.

"Die!" Another explosion followed shortly after, with Katsuki striking his open left hand right into his attacker's gut. The impact knocked any and all air out of Yuhando, causing him to cough up saliva in the few seconds before the blast launched him about fifteen meters away.

Kokeha didn't even put up much of a fight. The second that Katsuki even got close to him, the black-haired boy's bravado turned out to be nothing but that – Bravado. He launched a weak strike towards the Quirked boy, who blasted both it, and him, away with a single detonation of his explosive power, like he was swatting away a fly.

And that was just that. It hadn't even been a particularly long or brutal fight, but Katsuki stood victorious at the end of it all, his hands still smouldering.

Had anyone been around, they would have seen the teenager surrounded by smoke and his own hands burning. He took in deep breaths, recapturing the oxygen that he'd lost during the battle. His fingers twitched, and his eyes cut through the smoke.

"Deku!" Once he'd managed to recapture his breath, the blond teenager quickly made his way towards Izuku.

His eyes were now open, albeit only about half and unfocused. He let out a long groan as he was rolled onto his back, not seeming to understand where he even was. "Ooooow… Head… Hurting…" He muttered, blinking hard and deliberately. There wasn't any blood, but there was a nasty lump that was starting to emerge just on the back of his neck, not to mention a bruise. Nothing to indicate that there was serious damage.

A strike to the head wasn't normally too bad – It was the injury to the brain that someone had to worry about. The good news was, that typically only occurred from hits like the one Izuku took multiple times. Clearly, Tsubasa hadn't wanted to cause any permanent injuries, and hadn't cracked his skull in. He'd used just the right amount of strength to knock Izuku off his balance and disorientate him for a short while.

"Oh, thank fuck." Relieved, Katsuki looked at the best way to go about picking Izuku up without causing him discomfort. The best way he could think was to try to get help from Uraraka and see if he could end up piggy-back carrying him to Yuuei, so the nurse there could check and see if he'd suffered a concussion. He turned his head. "Hey – "

" _ **Go to Hell!"**_

Tsubasa was back up, and he had sped straight over to a now defenceless Katsuki. Recovering from the blast he's taken, or just fighting through it, he was back on his feet and aiming to break in the Quirked teenagers face. How he moved so quickly and silently was beyond his target, but there wasn't anything that could be done. He had moved too quickly.

Less than a meter away by the time that Katsuki noticed that he was even in any danger. His hand flinched and began to spark in retaliation, but while his body was already reacting and moving to strike, in the brief second that it would take before the large boy's weapon struck him in the face, he knew that he wasn't going to be able to move quick enough. If he had been given just a heads up a single second sooner, he might have been able to do something.

But like this? There wasn't anything he could do.

Everything that happened next though happened in a complete blur.

The hit went though, and Tsubasa swung with as much force as he could muster – But missed. He completely missed Katsuki, the end of his weapon just barely scratching against the skin of his target. Like his entire body was just being moved.

Which turned out to be exactly what was happening.

A war cry was the only way to describe what noise Uraraka had made as she's shoved her right hand against Tsubasa's arm. She had charged and reached out her limb to touch her enemy just before it was too late. Like he was little more than a paperweight to her, the brown-haired girl pushed him, screaming and pushing him with all of her might.

One final push, which she put in so much force into, she wasn't even able to stay on her feet once it was done, falling right onto the ground as she did so, sent Tsubasa flying right across the street, and slamming him into a fire hydrant. The impact had knocked the air right out of him, and knocked him out cold.

None of what happened exactly was clear to Katsuki. He had little clue what had just gone down, and his brain hadn't had the time or speed to process it as it occurred. One second, he was certain that he was about to have his skull caved in, the next, Uraraka was pushing Tsubasa, and the next, she was on her stomach on the ground, with his former classmate lying next to a fire hydrant on the other side of the street. What she had even done was a mystery to him. She had to have used her Quirk, there wasn't any real question about that. But he had no clue what it was that she'd done. Strength Enhancement?

Looking at her, breathing heavily and looking slightly queasy, he found it hard to believe that she had something like that. Then again, Tsubasa had to have been twice her weight, and yet she had provably single handedly taken him out.

With ragged breath, she looked towards Katsuki, and tried to offer a small smile. "Are you okay?..."

That was the single moment that Katsuki knew that he'd misjudged this girl, in every single way possible. For some reason, he noted that the sky was grey and miserable. This girl was supposed to be the one that he and Izuku were looking after. In the end, she had been the one to save them. Countrysider or not… She wasn't a weakling.

Not even close.

"…I owe you one." Was all he said to her. When her smile finally managed to spread, Katsuki couldn't help but feel his own lips move as well, giving her a smile filled with respect.

* * *

Tsubasa and his group were arrested shortly afterwards, collected by the police while the three Quirked teenagers were given a lift to the Yuuei grounds by the police. Katsuki was certain that they were only offering a ride because they wanted to file some kind of complaint against his use of his Quirk, which had damaged the surroundings slightly, or because they just didn't want what they thought was a group of three superhumans walking freely. He couldn't bring himself to care though, given the close call that it had been.

He'd been in fights before, with tougher enemies for more pathetic reasons. Meatheads who had something to prove. Sons who took after their fathers' hatred. Mothers who fretted over their children's safety. People who simply hated the Quirked for existing. He'd gotten into so many fights he had a recorded criminal record, no doubt about it. Izuku did too, and now Uraraka also might. But that had never stopped him from fighting harder than ever. Fighting as hard as he could.

His old friends though, people he had known for years… Seeing how violently and easily they had turned on him, how much they truly did want to beat him down, and maybe even kill him… While he wasn't normally one to show emotions of weakness, internally, he wouldn't deny that the experience had shaken him slightly. He'd grown to expect being attacked… But not by people like that.

Not by old friends. It was why he'd held back. Even after what they did to Izuku, he hadn't gone at them with the intent to fully beat them down, to attain absolute and undeniable victory against his foes.

Deep down, he hadn't wanted to hurt them. But he'd had to, to protect the person he considered a brother.

There just wasn't a way to go through that without feeling pathetic. Weak. He had Uraraka to thank that he wasn't choking on his own blood on a sidewalk, waiting for someone to call an ambulance.

The good news was that Izuku was okay. No concussions or anything permanent, though the nurse told him not to injure his head if he could avoid it – As if anyone ever went out with the intention of giving themselves head trauma. His footing was shaky, but he'd otherwise been okay. Initially, he had tried to thank Katsuki for saving him, but the Explosion Quirk user told him that Uraraka was the one he should be thanking. Were it not for her, they wouldn't have gotten away, simple as that. His own palms had several scratches next to the callouses that his Quirk gave him.

With the world as dangerous as it was, there was generally one rule that nature declared, long before Humans ever existed, and would continue to enforce long, long after Humans were gone. And that rule was that they strong thrived, and the weak perished. There wasn't room for moderately powerful Quirks, or even strong Quirks. For a Quirked person to actually have a chance, they needed to have a Quirk so weak and unnoticeable they could hide it, or be so overwhelmingly strong people wouldn't try to assault them. Basically, to be Quirked and survive, you had to either be a T-Rex, a beast so vicious no one dared go near you, or an insect, a being so pathetic no one even cared. For a long time, Katsuki had believed that.

It wasn't until he learned what Uraraka's Quirk was that he learned that he'd been wrong.

"Zero Gravity?" Izuku repeated, already with a notebook in hand and a pencil at the ready.

"Yeah… Uh… What're you doing?"

"It's just a thing he does." Katsuki explained, crossing his arms as Izuku began to write down Uraraka's Quirk name. "He makes notes on the Quirks he sees. He's got mine in one of them somewhere."

Izuku never wrote down Quirks that he read about when he could see them in action. If he ready about a Quirk seen in somewhere like Britain or America, he'd search for footage of it, but if not, only then would he write it down. A demonstration of a Quirk was always better for notes, according to him. That was why, even though he had read about her superpower in her student notes, he hadn't written anything down.

"A hobby?"

"A weird one."

Nodding at her understanding, Uraraka further explained her Quirk, showing off her finger pads as she did so. "Well, like I said, my Quirk is called Zero Gravity. Basically, whenever I touch something with these finger pads, my Quirk let's me cancel out that objects gravity."

"So that's how you threw Tsubasa around like that."

"Yeah. I made him unaffected by gravity, and that let me throw him around so easily."

It explained how her Quirk would have been useful for construction work, and why she had used words like float when describing what she could do. But still, it wasn't too powerful at all. Under normal circumstances, the Quirk wasn't on the same level as something like Explosion. It simply wouldn't hold up…

Yet, her power was the only reason that they had gotten out of that whole mess unscathed.

"Can you show me exactly what you can do?" Izuku asked, intrigued. He held up an old stress ball for the brunette to use in her demonstration. His eyes showed an eagerness to see her Quirk in action. An enthusiasm. A curiosity.

For someone Quirkless to show an interest in Quirks that wasn't so they could throw the user into a cell or tag them was an odd experience for people who first met the curly haired boy. The hesitation was clear on Uraraka's face, before she happily accepted his request, and took the ball into her hands.

A slightly flick or her wrist to throw the stress ball into the air later, and the sphere was floating into the sky as directed by the Quirk user. Before long, it wasn't even visible by the naked eye.

"…When exactly is it going to fall?" Izuku questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Whenever I feel like it." Uraraka responded simply. "It's… Probably in the stratosphere by now though. I did kind of flick it upwards, eh heh." She scratched the back of her head awkwardly.

Katsuki whistled. "To infinity and fucking beyond, huh?"

In nature, the strong survived, or the weak survived for the simple reason that there was no need to even concern oneself with them. That was how the world worked when it came to the Quirked. The weak simply were ignored or could hide, and the strong were feared. Those in-between would simply fall.

But Uraraka was the exception. Her moderate Quirk had saved Katsuki. Had saved Izuku. And she was strong.

Weak Quirks had every chance to be strong. And it was through that that the Quirked would survive. By banding together. By looking after one another. Izuku was Quirkless, but he was one of the few who got it. Even before Katsuki had gotten it himself. There was still so much about Izuku's goals that he didn't get… But he felt he could understand this at least.

…He needed to get stronger. To improve his Quirk and its firepower. To become a better fighter. To be able to never lose a fight again. Not like he nearly had to Tsubasa and his group. To be able to fight a hundred people and come out number one.

To help Izuku achieve his goal. To protect what he cared about. The few friends he had. With so little left in this world that he truly did give a damn about, he wanted to fight. To protect it.

And he refused to lose any of it.

Before anyone could speak, Katsuki suddenly felt a drop of water hit his cheek. "Rain." He simply stated, pointing upwards with his index finger.

The grey clouds had turned dark, and as predicted, the rain was soon to come. Droplets began to fall around the three teenagers.

"We should get inside, quickly." Izuku said, already turning around and shoving his notebook underneath his hoodie.

"Yeah. Come on, Infinity Girl." Katsuki stated, before shoving his hands into his own hoodie, and following Izuku.

Unaware of the smile on Uraraka's face at her new nickname.

* * *

The clouds were a shade of light grey, and they covered up the entirety of the sky over the city, blocking out most of the sun's light. Rain threatened to fall, but never did, and never would. This was just one of those days that was forever going to be cloudy, without anything coming from it. They would just hang there as a constant warning, though they wouldn't follow through with the threat of rain until the night came around. Most people wore jackets, and kept the hoods up, just to shield them from the non-existent rain. Others wore the same sorts of clothes, but for the warmth that they gave instead. Many people opted to simply wear raincoats instead, feeling better about being in this sort of clothing.

It was a cold day. Thanks to the aforementioned clouds, the heat from the giant ball of burning gasses that the Earth rotated around didn't all hit those walking through the streets below. Given it was in the period of Summertime, this was an anomaly of a bad, unseasonal day. The kind of day that stood out despite the gloom of it all, since it was surrounded on all other sides by good, sunny days that didn't have clouds in the sky at all. The effects of the changing world at hand with this abnormal weather were in full swing. Many would call it the fault of climate change or global warming.

Now, some people had the nerve to blame Quirks. Some people genuinely got the insane idea in their heads that whenever something bad happened in the world, be it natural disaster, or rain when it should have been sun, that Quirks were in some way responsible.

Under regular circumstances, Katsuki and Uraraka both would have worn jackets and the likes to retain their own warmth. This wasn't an option though. Were they not restricted to the rules that Yuuei students, at all times, had to display their uniforms, they wouldn't be getting all the hostile, cold glares right now. Looks from the Quirkless whom hated them merely for their genetics. They wouldn't be shivering like it was the middle of winter. And they wouldn't be a pair of freaks, wondering around a city that was supposed to be for the normal.

They would just be two teenagers, going about errands for their headmaster.

"Fuckin' Quirkless." Katsuki muttered under his breath. The two top buttons of his polo shirt were undone, and his tie was totally discarded, as he normally dressed himself. It was small, and it was pretty, but it was a small show of rebellion against these discriminatory rules. "Do they have to stare at us everywhere we go?"

"It's not really every day that they see people like us, Katsuki." Uraraka reminded him, though she had to admit, the constant looks of disapproval and hatred towards her mere existence didn't make her comfortable.

"This ain't the fucking countryside. Or the rurals, or wherever the hell you're from. These pricks're bound to see Quirked people all the time. Higher concentration of us in big, cluttered areas like this."

She pouted. "No need to be rude."

The pair of them were running the errands provided for them a few hours ago, hoping to get most them done. What the supplies were actually for, neither of them were sure. Repairs to the training rooms, perhaps? A lot of it seemed to be construction, though there were plenty of textbook and academic sections, including personal computers, laptops, and electronic devices. They didn't need to carry much of anything, just giving over various cheques and identification papers to those in charge of the establishments they visited.

Nonetheless, Uraraka had insisted that they bring back some cheap foods on the way back – Something a bit more savoury than the food provided to them by the school. Something they could really sink their teeth into. If nothing else, something to celebrate their first day as Heroes going well. Katsuki had agreed. After they had finished. And after a lot of nagging and convincing.

"How many more of these places do we have to visit?" He questioned, returning a nasty glare to a teenager who had scowled at him. Said teenager quickly averted their eyes when Katsuki's red ones met their dull, brown ones.

Checking the list, Uraraka scratched her head gently. "Uh… There's only a couple more in walking distance. The stores are gonna close down in about an hour, so we should only stick around this area for now." Staying out after dark would not be good for them. Especially in their uniforms.

Katsuki nodded, and took a look up to the sky. Depressing colours, and the exact same ones as the uniforms they were made to wear. Not that poetry or symbolism were either of his things, but there were honestly a number of parallels that he could draw between those at Yuuei, and rainclouds. Both were hated by the general public. Not because they did anything personal to them, but because they hated what they naturally were. Neither could unleash their fullest without incurring the wrath of those around them. And there was real reason for either of them to exist.

No divine command. No cosmic reasoning. Not even necessarily because it was the way the world was destined to go.

They just were. That was the only reason why clouds existed, and that was the only reason why the Quirked existed. Because they just did.

He liked cloudy days. He liked them a hell of a lot more when he didn't have to freeze his ass off in them, but he liked them.

For one were consistent. The world around him was a gloomy, miserable hellhole, so the sky reflecting that was actually pleasant. It wasn't a stark contrast to the realities of the world. A bright sunny day to contrast all the prejudice and hatred. At least he knew where the world stood when the weather reflected the misery they all had to deal with.

People could be inconsistent. Particularly the Quirked. He'd met plenty of Quirked who said one thing and did another. Hypocrites. Liars. People who acted cheery, friendly, and receptive, but were in truth self-interested vermin who would stop at nothing to put themselves ahead of others.

Working with Izuku on his Quirked rescue crusade for so long, Katsuki had met a lot of people like that. It made trusting anyone difficult for him. Grey skies were constant. But… He did have another reason for liking them.

They reminded him of the day he met Uraraka. When he started to truly care about the state of the Quirked.

A drop of water suddenly hit the blond boys nose, prompting him to look up. Within the space of a few seconds, the clouds suddenly erupted, dumping down rapid rain on the street. Hoods and umbrellas went up around the Yuuei students.

"Oh, you're fucking joking." Katsuki growled. The weather had said clouds, but no rain, which went to show just how reliable that whole mess was. Within a few seconds, his hair and jacket would be completely soaked. All because the rest of the world was seriously so terrified of Quirks that he wasn't even allowed to wear a damn raincoat –

"Here."

Before he could even react, a bright pink umbrella was suddenly over his head. When he looked to the source, he saw none other than a smiling Uraraka, standing slightly closer to him so the umbrella shielded her too. He just looked at her. Had she held onto this thing the whole day, just in case?

"Guess I'm better prepared than you." She teased as she noticed his expression. It was while she was saying this that he noticed that with how she was holding it, she was mostly prioritizing covering him up. The height difference between them also meant she had to keep her arm high in the air, which was no doubt going to get quickly uncomfortable.

"Give me that damn thing." He swiped the umbrella from the girl, and held it in his left hand, granting the shorter girl better protection from the rain than she had been getting. "You'll catch cold the way you're fucking holding it. How do you even fuck up holding up an umbrella?"

He was still aggressive, even more so than when she first met him, but Uraraka couldn't help but smile to herself. At his core, no matter how much he tried to hide it, Katsuki was a good person and he'd always be a good person, because of the way that this world was. Maybe it was selfish, but that made her glad. Glad that the world was like this. So that they could try to fix it together.

Would they have ever met if the world wasn't like this?

She didn't know. But she did know that with the world the way it was, they had to count their blessings where they could.

And she was counting hers right now.

* * *

 **It's been a long time since I updated this story – And I really am sorry about that. So many things came up and this story just kind of fell by the wayside. AE took up a chunk of my time and I needed to get that finale finished. And then oneshots came up and so much more. But anyway – I promised a chapter before returning to AE, and never let it be said that I don't deliver! This was the first time I've ever written anything very Bakugou focused, and the first time I've ever written anything Kacchako centric, which I wanna change, cause I've grown pretty fond of this ship. Nowhere near as close as Izumina, but I still like it. A lot of that comes from Saisaichan on Tumblr, but anyways. Expect more chapters with these two being focused on in the future. I think that this version of Bakugou can feel out of character, but we need to remember that this Bakugou has gone through a lot more shit than the cannon version – and considering that the cannon has gone through a lot, that's saying something.**

 **I also wanted to clarify – Because OCD won't let me not bring this up – The point after Bakugou calls Uraraka Infinity Girl is the present time. It's been a while and some people might be confused. Or maybe I don't give you guys enough credit.**

 **Either way, I do hope you enjoyed this return to FG – It's been a lot of fun to get back into. I didn't intend for this chapter to be so long, but it just sort of happened. I was having fun. I want to try to get back to regularly updating this fic, but with all the work I do on fics, Uni, and comics, it's pretty difficult to keep up. I'll try to update, even if it means shorter chapters. I have a very clear storyline planned for First Gen, and I think that when it's done, it will be a glorious work.**

 **In the meantime – I've finished Five words, and been uploading a few oneshots – All I want, Waking At Morn, my oneshots for the Izumina week, and plenty more to come with experimental ships. You can check them out if you want less depressing fics where fluff and happiness reign. If you want updates on what I do, you can follow my Tumblr – I recently got an Izumina and Itsumomo commission from an amazing artist on there that you should totally check out. My Tumblr is QuirkQuartz if you're interested.**

 **If you want to support what I do, please do consider supporting me on Pat Reon. You guys who donate help me out in ways I can't even begin to describe, and make it possible to spend time writing this stuff – But don't feel compelled to by any means. All support is highly appreciated and goes directly into my work and lets me continue doing this so frequently. If you want to, my Pat Reon is also under the name of QuirkQuartz, but again, feel no need to unless you really do want to support me.**

 **Thank you all for reading, and I will see you all next time – See ya!**


	20. Bravery

Tenko Shimura hated the Quirkless.

That was the blunt, short, cut and dry behind the motive of everything that he ever did.

A theft here, a murder there, a jailbreak in-between, and an impossible to count number of crimes. The sheer volume of violence that the young man used went on and on, were he to use his real name, he would no doubt be considered one of the most dangerous terrorists on the planet.

As it stood, Tomura Shigaraki was the one who took the brunt of the blame. And that was more than fine with him, because as far as he was concerned, Tenko Shimura was long dead. The world of the Quirkless had torn him open and ended his life. What walked in the skin and flesh of Tenko Shimura was Tomura Shigaraki. A person with a single goal in his existence.

The eradication of the Quirkless. The absolute and utter obliteration of the Quirkless and their society which preyed on people born with Quirks, along with any evidence that it ever existed. And from that, he would create a new society in which those who possessed Quirks ruled. The pale Decay Quirk user scratched at his neck violently whenever he thought about the world that had utterly broken him and those around him.

And the spawn it had created. The First Generation.

He growled, glancing over the tall, dark purple nearing black, brain-dead freak in front of him, that stood silently and didn't even react to a single thing that happened around it. It didn't move, it didn't look, it didn't even breath without being ordered to. An utterly empty shell of a being that served no purpose except the ones that it would be given. It didn't even seem like it could be considered alive. Just a few hours ago, this creature had been a person that had been used for his master's purposes.

Now, Ryu Sutoret barely even existed anymore. He was a tamed creature with no free will, and no desire for it. Genetically engineered and overloaded with Quirks to nothing but obedient. And to utterly crush The First Generation.

"You sure this thing's ready?" To his side, one of Shiagaraki's allies who went only by the name of Dabi questioned. His arms were folded, and in spite of the permanent grin his burn marks gave him, he easily looked unimpressed. "We didn't even get a full day to augment this thing. We're not even certain all the Quirks work."

"I assure you, the Nomu is very capable." The voice of All For One came through a nearby Television sets speakers, the man's eyes peering through the screen like he was talking to Dabi face-to-face. "I have granted the creature Quirks that will activate regardless of it's will to do so, and its physical capacity has been enhanced to the very brink of natural Human capability. The only thing that it relies on is instruction from Tomura. Kurogiri, your job is to warp Tomura to the Nomu whenever he needs to give it a new order."

As he spoke, Dabi knelt down by the Nomu's knee, and inserted a tracking chip into the skull-pads that covered its knees. He inserted it into the eye-hole, making sure that the sticky bottom was firmly secured onto the material, so it wouldn't be shaken off during a rampage. After installation, he gave the prying mastermind a thumbs up, indicating that everything seemed fine.

"That should let us track its location for you through GPS. You'll have whatever coordinates you'll need."

Kurogiri did the closest thing that a person made of black mist could do that resembled bowing. "Understood."

Throughout the conversation, Shigaraki's scratches against his neck had been getting faster and faster, and more and more violent. A sinister grin made its way onto his lips though, growing more and more as his neck got sorer and sorer. There wasn't any way that this could fail.

The Nomu was designed to be based around the strength level of the strongest people that his master had ever fought, pushed to the maximum and overloaded with Quirks designed to let it take all the punishment it needed to. It would follow his orders to the absolute letter, without complaint or hesitation.

He couldn't help but let out a sinister chuckle, unhindered and uncaring by the fact that Dabi and Kurogiri now had their eyes firmly on him. If anything, that only made him laugh more. "If those 'Heroes' try and fight the Nomu, they're certain to get slaughtered, and if they run, then the Quirkless are going to turn on them immediately…. No matter what happens, the First Generation isn't going to be a problem anymore!"

* * *

"' _The Unseen First Generation – Quirked Crusaders Capture Criminals.'?"_

Mina read aloud the news-site article Todoroki had pulled up on his phone as she looked over his shoulder. As she spoke, she could see his red eyes shoot back to glare at her through his flare-like mask, but he failed to intimidate her in any real way. Katsuki and Uraraka both looked over in her direction, while Izuku looked over the city, thinking to himself, contemplating what their best move would be.

Night had come around quickly, earlier than normal, and the five teenagers had promptly changed into their costumed and made their way into the city. A certain feeling of apprehension could be felt, even from the rooftops. The First Generation had become widely known very quickly, like a match to paper. It was all the news had reported all day, various reporters and analysts from both the left and the right side of politics debating about the incident, and what it meant in the future.

According to Uraraka and Katsuki, it was all a lot of people in the city had even been capable of talking about. Many looked at the two of them with odd glances, some clearly entertaining the possibility of the two of them being involved in the First Generation – Obviously, they didn't have reason to suspect both of them. They would be suspicious of anyone in a Yuuei uniform.

That had been another thing that had been overlooked. Increased suspicion of Quirked individuals. There wasn't really anything that could be done about that, but there was a high enough number of Quirked in the city that no one would ever be able to be certain. That was a barrier that prevented too many issues. At least, Izuku hoped that was the case.

"Looks like we got people's attention." Todoroki stated, closing his phone and sliding it into his pocket. The pink girl got the distinct feeling that the half-and-half teenager wasn't exactly the most appreciative of her peeking over to see what he was reading.

"I knew it wouldn't take a lot of time, but it's still kind of… Dizzying." Uraraka commented, with a curl on her lips that couldn't decide if it was a smile or a frown.

Mina couldn't agree with her more. It wasn't like she hadn't expected to be directly in the line of sight of the people who lived in the city, but at the same time, it was a surprise. Like it had gently just crawled up on her and grabbed at her ankle. She was used to being the center of attention, though usually it was when she didn't even want to be, and it was by no means ever a good thing.

She wasn't even necessarily certain that this sort of attention was a good thing. The goal was to get as much attention as they possibly could, so they could prove that not ever Quirked person was a bloodthirsty animal, but that strategy was a double-edged sword. More eyes on them certainly did mean that Quirks would be viewed in a light that they never had been before… But it also meant that they were in the direct line of fire. They didn't know if the public would support them, or if they were going to try to attack them as soon as see them.

Previous experience suggested the latter.

"Well, Todoroki single-handedly stopped a Yakuza operation, and I called in what happened… I'm not surprised that we're the talk of the town, given all that." Izuku said, keeping his eyes on the concrete jungle.

"Yeah, your cryptic way of fucking delivering answers probably helped that." Commented the Explosion Quirk user flatly.

They were on a reasonably tall building just on the outskirts of the city, about five floors in all at a guess. Far taller buildings were within eyesight, some of the lights in the windows flickering off as those who resided in the buildings opted to call it a night. The life of the city was there for anyone who paid attention to see, even from this quiet corner on the edge of the metropolis. Thousands of people who were trying to live their lives as peacefully as they could.

Mixed in with those sorts of people were the degenerates, the crooked, the corrupt and the downright evil. The kinds of people Izuku wanted to bring to justice using his Quirk, and with the help of his friends and their Quirks. To help create a better world for people who lived honestly and cooperatively, regardless of if they had Quirks or not.

Eyes would be on the skies and the rooftops tonight, he knew, as a curious and eager population waited to see what came next. They wanted to see what The First Generation were going to do, what their plans were, and how they would affect the Quirkless. Were they going to be the Heroes that they said they were, or were they going to end up being nothing more than domestic terrorists?

To the onlookers, those clouded by fear and prejudice, the most likely scenario seemed to be the latter. Large groups of Quirked individuals banding together to cause havoc was certainly nothing new by any means. Activist groups had been around long before The First Generation, only they had been far more violent in trying to get their way. Worldwide, the number of attacks by angry Quirked demanding equal rights were disturbingly large. No one had even seemed to try the Super-Heroism route.

And that left Izuku sweating with anxiety. He had no frame of reference for what he was doing. It was all just straight off of the top of his head. The closest thing to improvisation that he was capable of.

Too many variables were still up for debate. It was still very early in their Vigilante careers. He didn't have a whole lot of experience in this sort of field. He was good at assessing Quirks and fighting styles. But he lacked the confidence to really say that he was able to lead. He was just doing the best that he could to guide the people who had faith in him, and to convince those who would watch them of their genuine intentions.

Primarily, the majority of opinions would be when they first encountered a Quirked individual on a rampage. Someone with a dangerous Quirk could cause untold damage, and their reasons for doing so could be numerous. A fresh activation, fear, anger, or desperation to escape from persecution and prejudice, or even just instinctive activation, from those who didn't have total control over their powers. Some – Many – Were accidental. Circumstance would absolutely be a factor in what happened, but the primary objective in that scenario would be to try to stop any more property damage, and keeping casualties as low as possible. What was most important, Izuku thought, was showing that they weren't picking sides. That they showed that they were going to fight any side who acted out harmfully against the other.

Picking and choosing which fights they wanted to be a part of simply wasn't an option. Which meant that coming into conflict with other Quirked was more or less unavoidable. And considering that Izuku didn't have full control over One For All yet, he was looking at a dangerous scenario where any number of Quirks could put him or others in serious danger.

Which was why he had brought along a weapon.

Wrapped around his waist, he kept a red coloured utility belt. Within said belt was a set of supplies. First aid mostly, along with his phone, and a notebook in one in the back that he could use to take notes on particular Quirks, or cases, or whatever he needed to write down. In one, he kept a series of home-made smoke pellets that he had taught himself to make thanks to the internet, which would be useful if the group needed cover for an escape. Another contained the rope that they would tie themselves together with when they needed to combine Zero Gravity and One For All to traverse the city quickly. The rest were empty, miscellaneous pouches that he could use to store anything extra that he felt he might need. As the nights went on, he imagined that he would think up more things to fill up those pockets, more equipment to help them out as they went on.

Locked in at the side though, with its own separate, slightly darker red holster that was tucked just under the belt, was his weapon.

A knife.

Specifically, a twelve-inch tactical Bowie knife. When he had been out shopping for parts for everyone's Hero costumes, he had purchased it on a whim. Actually, that was a lie – He had straight up stolen it. While he felt guilty about it, there would have been no way in hell anyone would have willingly sold it to someone who didn't have and identification, and most people would openly deny the weapon to anyone with a Quirk, so he had taken it when one of the store-owners hadn't been looking. He didn't particularly like weapons at all, but really, he felt like he didn't have much of a choice. If he hesitated, someone could die.

For all he knew, Quirks like Kirishima's Hardening were common, and if One For All couldn't break through those sorts of powers, what did he do then? The knife was an absolute last resort. One he prayed he'd never even need to use.

Eventually, he'd go back and pay for it. Stealing wasn't something he ever liked doing, but given that he'd spent two years going out of his way to help protect disenfranchised Quirked, he'd had to do a lot of things he regretted. This didn't even make the top twenty. Still, having stolen a weapon was a different feeling altogether. Just carrying the weapon on him made him feel uneasy. Like just owning it was like asking for trouble. He felt himself shudder at the thought of having to use it.

"We stumbled on that Yakuza operation by chance yesterday. We didn't even mean to find it." Uraraka pointed out. "And we weren't even seen, aside from that dealer you and Katsuki dealt with. Something tells me drug dealers aren't exactly the best eyewitnesses..." She paused for a brief moment, exchanging a look with Katsuki before returning her look towards Izuku. "So… What's the plan for tonight? It's not like we have any tips on stuff going on, or anything like that…"

"Wouldn't it make sense for us to make an appearance?" Todoroki questioned. "People don't even know what we look like yet."

"No..." Izuku said slowly, thinking about the options they had. "We can't be sure that we wont just immediately get arrested by the police if we just make a public appearance… Then again, the longer we remain in the shadows, it's more likely that people will start to be afraid of us. We can't just show up whenever we want, but Uraraka is also right… We don't really have any news on what's happening in the city… I guess the only thing we can do are patrols until something else shows up…"

So many options, all the time, and so many things to consider. Mina wondered how Izuku hadn't gone insane yet, especially with how he rationalized and thought about things. He left nothing unconsidered, and went over every possibility that he could think of.

She was glad he was the leader. If she was the one leading this group, she had a feeling that she wouldn't last an hour.

"Uraraka, d'you think you can make us all weightless again?" Izuku questioned, turning away from the horizon and walking over to his group.

The Zero Gravity Quirk got onto her feet and stretched her arms. Her fingers clicked as she bent them back. "No problem, Deku. You got the rope?"

"Right here."

* * *

Metropolitan areas were areas that were easily the most in danger by the presence of Villains, and Quirks in general. While Izuku believed fully that Quirks had a place in the world – An unavoidable, inevitable place, if the eugenics were to be believed – he understood that there were dangerous ones out there.

His own was a deadly one. Everyone in his group possessed dangerous Quirks if they used them a certain way. Many of the Quirks that he'd seen throughout his life were dangerous ones. Most of the ones broadcast on the media were dangerous ones, though that was due to the bias the stations had, and their ever-insatiable demand for a hot news story.

Some of the fear of Quirks wasn't necessarily unfounded. And it certainly wasn't difficult to understand.

Whenever Izuku walked in and amongst a crowd of people, he found himself aware of the tension that existed in the air. He could virtually feel it, and how it stuck onto people. The paranoia, how everyone gave everyone around them a second glance. Everyone was a potential enemy. Anyone could have a Quirk. Anyone could turn around and use whatever power they had to hurt people. But the reverse was true for those who had Quirks. Any semblance of abnormal behavior, and the entire city would be down on them.

It was part of the reason why Yuuei students had to wear their uniforms whenever they left the school premises. Doing so would at the very least, reduce some semblance of paranoia. It was better than having everyone on edge at all times.

At least, that was one of the official reasons given.

And it wasn't like rampages were the only thing that a Quirk wielder could go on. Quirk related crime was enormous. That was an easy thing to forget. Rampages caused the most damage, and got the most media coverage, but they certainly weren't the only things that went on. Gangs fighting, robbery, mugging, assault, even murder. Someone with a dangerous Quirk who was smart and picked their targets was far deadlier than someone who was just enraged and attacking indiscriminately. Someone who was smart about what they did was quite capable of causing far more damage to more important areas. And they could do it with a comparatively weaker Quirk.

There were so many possibilities that Izuku knew he hadn't even been able to consider yet, but he knew that if he wanted people to see the First Generation as Heroes, they were going to have to fight any sort of criminal activity that they found.

Not that it meant he wanted a fight. His ideal scenario would be for all Quirk related incidents to simply cease as soon as the crooks caught wind that Heroes were now in town. He knew that wasn't going to be what happened, but that would be his idea outcome.

"Hear anything?" Mina asked, snapping Izuku from his thoughts. He looked to his side to see the pink girl giving him a kind smile. Her bandanna and her ski-goggles were off, around her neck and forehead respectively, not at all hiding her face. Her hood was off too, showing her pink hair and horns to anyone who happened to walk through the nearby dark alleyway, and then looked up as she was leaning over.

The chances were pretty small. Besides, Mina felt like she'd been melting when covered in all of that fabric.

Izuku shook his head. "Nothing yet, but I don't think listening is a good way to really find any criminals anyway. We're mostly just here so we're closer in case we do find something, but – "

"Doesn't hurt to keep a look out, right?"

He nodded. "Right."

"See, I'm getting good at figuring out how you think." Mina said, cheerfully. She sat herself down on the edge, with her back facing the alleyway so her skin would be harder to spot. "So, tomorrow we've gotta go drop that Eri girl off at that orphanage, right?"

"Yeah." Izuku nodded again, glancing down the alleyway again to make sure that they were alone, before he turned to look at her fully. "It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to do. Are you sure you wanna come along?"

Mina nodded this time. "I'm positive. I've been through the worst of this sort of thing. I can handle an orphanage." Clearly she wasn't over the haunting experiences of her early childhood, but she was putting on a brave face to try to get through them. "I wanna help this kid, even if it's just making sure this place isn't just some awful run down back alley… Thing."

"That's… That's really good of you… You know that means you'll have to be out in public, right?"

"Yeah, well… I can't just live in fear anymore, y'know?"

The black-haired boy allowed himself to smile. "… That's really brave of you. Especially after your…" He paused, not wanting to mention her brother. Her past come back to haunt her at the one place she thought that she'd be free from all that torment and torture.

An awkward silence fell between the two, Mina not sure what to say in response, and Izuku regretting his choice of words. It lasted about ten seconds before he spoke again, this time with absolute honesty.

"…You're a lot braver than I am."

It actually made Mina laugh gently. "Are you kidding? You've been helping people since you were a little kid. You've helped Bakugou since you were young, and you've been helping Quirked people for years. When we first met, you stood up to people with knives for me… And you're trying to change the whole world now. The Heroes, the ideas, and the dedication…. That's all from you, Midori."

"…But you're here. And you're following me."

Mina looked at him again.

"You're… You're following someone who really isn't sure about what he's doing. You... You act like I know all the answers. Like I'm… Some sort of Hero." His smile was crooked and curled inwards slightly, showing a slight sadness and some of the fear he tried to hide. "I… At the end of the day, all I am is a kid who's mad with how the world is. And I… I want to change it, make it the way I want it to be. To lots of people, I would be some sort of terrorist. The news will probably call us all that once we actually start to get active… And I… I don't know if we're capable of doing what I want to do."

"Midori…"

"…But you're the most at risk, out of all of us, and you're still here. You're here, putting your faith in me for something that we just don't know will work… You're… You're so much braver than I am. I doubt I could ever do what you're doing now."

Izuku smiled gently and listed off things with his fingers.

"You're willing to overcome your fears even when you're looking at people who want to kill you just for existing. You're willing to keep going, even when everything is horrifying, just to try to live your life. You're willing to put your whole life at risk, the safety that you've been wanting your whole life… Just because of me? Because you believe in what I'm saying?"

"…I'm doing it because I believe in you, Midori."

He turned to look at Mina.

"I thought you'd understand that by now. I'm… I'm doing all of this because I honestly believe in you. More than what you're saying… It's a nice dream, what you have, but It's gonna be a tough road to actually make it come true… Sometimes, I wonder if we actually can make it a reality. A world where the Quirked and Quirkless get along?... It just seems to… Surreal to me. I honestly just think we'll be lucky if we even get a few laws just suggested in defense of Quirked rights…. I…"

Her hand reached out and placed itself on the boy's knee. He seemed to tense up at the physical contact, but Mina didn't remove it at all. Izuku didn't attempt to move her hand either, so she continued.

"…I have more faith in you though. If anyone can do it, it's you, without any question. And I'm certain that we're gonna do some awesome stuff, if we follow you. I have faith in you, and you know what you want, and I want to help make it happen."

"…Like I said. You're braver than I am."

"Midori, you – "

The sounds of screams and a sudden shattering of concrete interrupted them before they could carry on.

It went from being a quiet night, to sounding like a bomb had gone off in less than a second. Before anyone could fully register what was happening, the entire world had just turned into a loud radius of what could only be compared to a battlefield. The whole area sounded like it was in the midst of a war, civilians fleeing and whatever was the cause of the ruckus was still ripping everything around it apart.

What could only be described as a vicious roar could be heard, suddenly bellowing and screaming right out over everything else. A shriek that was animalistic. Unrefined. Dark, almost pure evil incarnate, just from it's roar.

Izuku and Mina were both shaken to the bone. Katsuki was the first one on his feet, leaning over the edge of the rooftop to try to peer into the main street. His face was one of confusion, and that of a scowl, ready for combat. "What in the living _fuck_ was that?!"

Another crash. This time, the screeching of metal against tarmac could be heard as whatever had been destroyed dragged and skidded along the roadside. Glass shattered into a thousand pieces, and a loud thudding stomp shook the ground. The shock-waves of whatever had was moving even ran up the walls of the buildings the group stood upon.

Todoroki and Uraraka quickly joined the other three at the edge, trying to peer into the main street. Uraraka looked between her teammates, glancing at all their expressions, before she spoke up. "Are we – Are we going to find out?"

It didn't take much to figure out that this was it. They all knew that this was going to be their first actual debut, in the eyes of all of Tokyo. Beyond this alleyway, someone with a Quirk was going on a rampage, for whatever reason, and was destroying whatever was in their way. Whoever it was, whatever it was, they needed to be stopped. The First Generation needed to stop it.

They needed to be Heroes.

The smirk Katsuki always wore when combat was on its way made its way onto his face automatically, like he hadn't even realized that he was doing it. Sparks flew from his palms, and his glare narrowed. If anyone in their group was ready for a right, it was him. "Let's fuckin' do this!"

One by one, everyone threw on their masks, hoodies, and eyewear, equipping themselves for the fight ahead of them. Deep breaths and cracked knuckles. They all looked between one another. Izuku nodded.

And they all charged.

Leading the charge, Izuku, now Maverick, activated One For All's Full Cowl, readying himself to throw punches against whatever his opponent would be. The power and strength surged throughout him as his veins began to glow underneath his costume and over his face. He forced on the smile that Heroes needed to bare, to reassure everyone around him that everything was going to be okay as he ran onto the main street.

And then he laid eyes on his opponent.

A giant, lumbering, purple, borderline charcoal black creature stood before him, slinging an arm through the side of a building with next to no particular effort looking like it was going into it. Whatever it was, this person, if it could even be called that, was enormous, reaching over seven feet tall. It towered over most people with complete ease. Muscles that looked thicker than Izuku's whole arm, with bright red scars covered all over it. Skull-knee caps, and a set of huge, bulky beige pants that were cut at the knees were the only thing that the Goliath wore.

One of the most disturbing parts of whatever this thing was was the fact that it's brain was exposed. No visible skull or anything to defend and protect it. Instead, the vital organ just allowed itself to be seen by all who saw it. That wasn't all, either. Eye sockets seemed to not exist for this creature, so the eyeballs simply jutted out from between the brain and the rest of the head. The jawline was another feature that was inhuman. Instead of a Human jaw, this being seemed to have an avian beak which it could unhinge to a frighteningly large angle. Within it, a set of sharp teeth, jutted and ragged, shattered, like rocks.

Quirked Mutations were common, and they could result in some certainly bizarre looking people. Was that what this was? Izuku had no idea. He'd met so many Mutant types…

But this one didn't even _feel_ Human. It just felt like… Something else.

For a moment, he paused. Whatever battle-plans he'd been thinking up seemed to vanish, and he just stood there, looking at whatever this thing was. His mind was racing, trying to figure out what on earth he was looking at. He didn't have any clue what to even think about what it was. He didn't know where to start.

It took one look at Izuku.

And then charged.

* * *

 **It's shorter than what I normally do for First Generation, but I realized I actually value my sanity and mental well-being, and this fight is going to feel weird if I don't start fresh with a new chapter for it, so that's the plan. I wanted to get a short update out, and I think having nice, shorter chapters like this is a nice break. The next chapter will probably end up being a bit longer, so look forward to that.**

 **So we're finally going to see the First Generation have it's first proper fight, twenty bloody chapters in. You guys seemed to like the Kacchako last chapter, which was awesome fun, so I'm thinking I'll do a bit more of them in the future. They're a cute pair that compliment one another well in my opinion, and I wanna do some content with them in it. Honestly, I think First Generation has become one of my favorite stories to update, as well as come up with ideas for, alongside Immortal Hero. Just a shame I rarely find the time to update for them. I have way too many stories going on for my own good.**

 **Speaking of which, for those of you who read Awkward Energy – I updated it again! It's finally back, so I hope those of you who enjoy that will, well, enjoy that.**

 **These notes are weird, it's early morning and I'm still sleepy. (It's 1PM. That's early morning. I have no control over my life.)**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter, guys!**


	21. Creature

Izuku had faced danger before. So many times, that he often didn't stop to think about it anymore. It came with the territory of being the sort of person that he was. Dedicated to helping people, saving whoever he could, whenever he could. The world was cruel, and it was unfair, and it only felt right that he do what he could to help save those he could. Quirked, Quirkless. It didn't matter.

Even before he accepted a Quirk of his own, he would jump in front of girls with pink skin to protect them from getting stabbed or maimed in some way. He would do his best to help someone who could affect Gravity find a home at Yuuei. He would suffer burns to help rampaging hybrids, trying to calm them down and stop them before they were hurt. It was just the sort of person he was.

He was, in every sense of the word, a maverick. Someone who couldn't be predicted in any way whatsoever. At least, not by conventional, Quirkless standards, who turned their backs on those with Quirks the moment they became more common within the population. But Izuku didn't. Granted, he wasn't perfect. It hadn't been until his best friend had developed a Quirk that he took active interest, but he was one of the few Quirkless in the city who seemed to care.

Nothing would stop him now though. He was determined. And he wasn't going to let anything stop him. He was going to fight until he dropped dead, trying to make the world a safer place for those who had Quirks. He didn't freeze. He never froze when it came to helping people.

Whatever this creature in front of him was now though… That made him freeze.

There weren't any words to describe the lumbering freak that was charging towards him, like an animal going off of nothing but the most primal instincts. It was fast, and it was strong. And it was charging right towards Izuku.

His brain was telling him all the logical things that he should be doing now. Running. Firing up One For All. Getting ready to attack. Dodge. _Just to move_. But his legs weren't having any of it. His body refused to obey his brain, and the electrical impulses it sent to his limbs. He had experienced fear before.

This wasn't fear taking over. He was anxious, especially about the Hero stuff, of course he was – But he wasn't scared. Not exactly.

Horrified was a better word.

The purple creature was within attacking range in about five seconds, and Izuku hadn't taken his eyes off of it for a single one of those. Even as it lunged, he didn't have it in him to move.

This… Thing… He couldn't tear his eyes away.

"Get the fuck out of the way!"

The outside world finally snapped into focus when Katsuki launched himself straight at the creature, unleashing a single powerful explosion to the side of the head with his right hook attack. Katsuki had made sure to get into close range, and to detonate the most powerful blast he had to offer. The result caused the beast to lurch to the side, staggered, but certainly not defeated. Not even close.

"Get your head in the fucking game, Maverick!" Katsuki yelled, slamming his left palm into the creature again. It doubled as an attack, and as a movement ability – utilizing the recoil, he flung himself towards Izuku, skidding next to his friend. "Of all of us, _you're_ the one fucking freezing up now?!"

Maverick. For a moment, it didn't register with Izuku, but it hit him like a bolt of lightning about two seconds later, and then everything fell back into place. He looked around the area. Todoroki, Uraraka, and Mina were all approaching, and behind them, there were still some civilians who, for some reason, decided that they wanted to watch this happen, even if it put them in serious danger.

"Does – Does that thing seem… Weird to anyone else?" Izuku asked. The creature in question was still lurching, patting its head where the impact sight had been. It looked like a lost creature, unsure of where it even was.

"Who cares?! This was your fucking idea! Worry about that shit later!" Katsuki yelled, letting loose an explosion in his palms.

Everything became clear again. "R-Right, sorry."

Uraraka approached Izuku, putting a hand on his shoulder as she inspected what little she could of his face. "Are you alright, Dek – "

"Maverick!" Katsuki yelled again, reminding the Zero Gravity Quirk user not only of Izuku's Hero name, but their need to hide even the slightest thing that might give them away.

"I-I'm fine." Izuku assured her, blinking twice. Katsuki was right. No matter what was going on in his head, the most important thing right now was making sure that they did what they set out to do in the first place.

"What're we working with?" Todoroki took a step in front of Izuku, readying his Quirk, his right side already sending off a chill into the air around him.

Izuku took a few seconds to analyse what was in front of him. Granted, he didn't have too much information to go off of, but he reckoned that he could hazard at least a passable guess at what this beasts power was. It didn't take too much deduction. "I – I think, whatever this thing is, has a Strength Enhancement Quirk, like mine, only it can't turn it off or regulate it. I think we're dealing with a Mutation type. Based on it's actions, we're dealing with someone who just developed their Quirk and their primal instincts are kicking in."

"So, what's the plan?" Mina asked.

Five Heroes, which meant five Quirks to work with. Most were offensive, and all, if used correctly, were powerful. The priority would be to make sure that the civilians didn't get hurt, or caught in the crossfire. Izuku's brain rattled.

"Freezerburn!" He called to Todoroki, whom turned his head to face the leader of their group. "Use your ice to create a barrier between us and the civilians! Don't let this thing get past it! Once you're done, you're on reserve! Hang back unless we need you! Look for any injured civilians if you can!"

No words came from the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user. Just a nod, and he immediately followed his orders, running behind the group to generate a wall of ice – As much as he could, and as thick as he could.

"Blitzkrieg, you and I are going to try and throw this thing off guard! Attack it and try to stun it! Whatever this guy's Quirk is, he's clearly durable as well as physically capable, so we don't need to hold back! Infinity Girl, when you get a clear opening, use your Quirk to send this thing into the air! Once it loses all it's momentum, we could use Freezerburn's Ice to trap it!"

The creature seemed to calm itself down. It's bulging eyes scanned around again.

"And what do I do?"

"Alien Queen, you're on reserve too!"

Its eyes fell on the First Generation.

"Hey, I can fight!"

"We're not trying to kill this guy! Your Quirk is too risky right now! You could end up injuring one of us!"

She hated it, but Mina knew Izuku was right. Her Quirk was easily one of the most dangerous here, along with Todoroki's – Even Katsuki's Explosion was safer, since it was just the detonation, the level of impact he could control, and not the fragmentation that made a grenade deadly.

Mina was their last resort. And while she detested it, she knew it was the right call.

A shrill shriek came as the beast then began to charge towards the four of them, crushing the pavement underneath it's immense weight and raw power.

"Go!" Izuku flared up Full Cowl, and got himself ready for a head on collision. Left foot forward, and right first pulled back, ready to launch.

His team followed his orders exactly. Uraraka and Mina both got away from the two boys, giving them the space that they needed to work with. The Zero Gravity Girl stayed within a few meters of the soon to be fight, while Mina doubled back further.

"Go to Hell!" Katsuki roared with a grin, blasting the ground underneath him to launch himself, and then smacking the beast square in the jaw with another explosion. He didn't hold anything back in the slightest, as was per usual of a guy like him.

At the same time, Izuku launched his own attack. He pushed forward and an, slamming his right fist into the bests chest with a powerful reverse punch. In comparison to the rest of his Quirk, 5% wasn't a lot. But it was far, far more than he'd be able to do if he were still Quirkless. It should have been enough to at least make any normal person feel the hit.

This time though, the creature was ready. It didn't even seem to flinch all that much this time, staggering only briefly, before towering over both boys again. It hadn't done anything special in particular aside from potentially steeling itself for those strikes, but it certainly didn't do anything visually, aside form just tank the attacks.

And then, it swung.

Using its left arm, the creature swatted away Katsuki, like it was trying to get rid of an insect that was buzzing away in it's face. The beast clawed towards Katsuki, more skimming him that outright striking him. With a hand that was almost as big as the teenager's torso though, a scrape was easily enough to knock the Explosion Quirk user back, leaving him with a need to stabilize himself.

The hammer came for Izuku just a moment later, a giant, open hand, slamming down onto the road, intended to crush him whole. His reaction time had kicked in, and he leaped out of the way, just before he was trapped. The static electricity crackled over his body, sending shivers down his spine as he fell through the air and down to the ground again.

"Damn it!" Katsuki growled as soon as he had landed. Using smaller detonations, he had corrected his fall, and landed onto the ground without injury. "Bastard's ready for us now. We should've hit him when he was out of it the last time!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry!" Izuku said through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowed on his opponent. "There's still something not right about this, Kaccha – Blitzkrieg." He clamped down on his jaw as he reminded himself to use Hero names. His mind might now be on the task at hand, but that didn't mean that he had his head on straight, and that he wasn't still considering whatever this thing was. "We're just going to have to hit him harder!"

Based on what they were dealing with, even attempting to negotiate would be pointless. There had been a part of Izuku that had hoped that after a show of power, this thing would back down and surrender, or calm itself down. But neither of those things happened. It was like the thing didn't know how to stop. Or didn't know anything else other than brute force.

Knocking this thing out seemed to be the only way to stop it from causing more damage. Or entrapping it with Todoroki's ice. Though to do that in the first place, they were going to need to encase it while it wasn't moving, or able to move. Otherwise, it would just break open the ice and get free. In both cases, force was going to need to be used.

"Brute force for once." Katsuki grinned, setting off small explosions from his palms. "Now we're talking!"

"I don't think explosions will – "

Another charge from the gargantuan attacker came, lunging for both teens with large, open palms. This time, both Izuku and Katsuki reacted at the same time, jumping back with their respective Quirks to get out of the way. Once more, the grunts of the attacker, and the cracking of the road underneath it's enormous muscles could be heard clearly.

"You guys okay?!" Mina's voice could be heard above everything, at least for Izuku, the clear worry and concern so evident in her tone. "Freezerburn, hurry up with that wall! They need help!"

"I can't create this much ice all at once! Plus, if I'm not careful with the speed it spreads or the shape of it, I could end up trapping people in my ice too!"

Given their situation, Izuku knew that dividing up between everyone had made the most sense. He had distributed everyone as efficiently as he could have thought of. The presence of civilians had played a big part in how their priorities had to be assigned.

He glanced over his shoulder, to see a wall of ice as tall as two-story buildings, with thickness to match. Generating that amount of densely packed ice would take time and energy, and Izuku knew this as well as Todoroki did. But really, he was the only one of them that had a Quirk that let them create things. He was the barrier between the battle, and those they were trying to protect. The city workers would no doubt have an issue clearing up the ice once the battle was done, assuming that they couldn't return to clear the way again, but at least no one would be hurt.

That being said, his Quirk would be immensely useful in combating this threat. His fire and ice could help create perfect opportunities to strike and catch their enemy off guard.

" – I don't think explosions are gonna work!" Izuku called out to his comrade again as the pair fell through the air. This time, Izuku skidded, one knee narrowly avoiding scraping along the rocks and jagged stones that made up a road. "Their skin is too thick!"

"You want me to put on a fucking puppet show instead?!" Katsuki landed seconds later, before immediately throwing himself right back into the fray. This time, he swung low, creating detonations against the beast's lower legs.

With his Quirk, he couldn't do anything else. If explosions didn't work, then he was all out of ideas. Not that it was stopping him from doing the best he could. Katsuki wasn't ever the type to waver or back down just because something wasn't working.

Blasting himself away from another sweeping strike, he then launched himself behind the creature again and slammed his palm into the back of it's leg.

"Now, die!"

The detonation was rapid and large, and without any restraint at all. The creature staggered, and lost it's footing, but was otherwise unharmed. It swung its arm again, this time in the form of a fist, against the blond boy. With lightning reflexes though, he blasted himself away once again, right out of his opponent's range.

If Izuku had to compliment Katsuki on one thing, it was his natural warrior's instinct. He knew when to attack, when to pull back, and where to attack for maximum effect. He had a talent for this sort of thing, making the most out of what he had, even if it wasn't all that effective inherently. He could buy the rest of the group time all by himself if he wanted to. He was a natural fighter, and had an innate lust for it. He just knew how to fight on his own.

Izuku's initial reaction as to leap right into the battle again, but he made himself pause, flinch, and think before he did anything else. Izuku wasn't a natural born fighter, but he was a thinker. He could assess situations and plan accordingly.

Explosions weren't working. Not effectively against this creature anymore anyway. The element of surprise had been lost due to his own absent mindedness, and the being had learned what to expect from his opponents Quirk. Their skin was tough, and it wasn't going to let anything near it's head, and exposed brain, again. It was forcing Katsuki to stay low to the ground, where the only real target was the legs.

It was a good distraction though. The beast didn't even seem to be thinking about the other opponents anymore.

Which was nothing but good news for The First Generation.

"Freezerburn! How's that wall coming?" Izuku called out as loud as he could. Watching this fight go down was intense, and he could feel his heart thud against his chest in fear for his friend's safety.

"Just about done!" The timing couldn't have been more perfect. The bi-hair-coloured boy quickly lit his left side on fire, counterbalancing the cold that using his ice so much had spread throughout his body, as he turned and quickly ran towards Izuku.

"Holy crap – He's really going at it!" Mina had made her way close to the black-haired teen, trying to see if there was anything she could do to assist.

She spoke in reference to a still fighting Bakugou. As she spoke, he had just skidded underneath the creature's legs, and set off two blasts against its knee pads. The damage was minimal, but it was a harassing tactic that was paying off. He had a surprising amount of stamina, and more skill in fighting than anyone could have expected from him.

Uraraka's teeth clamped down against one another. "Tell me you have a plan, Deku."

Izuku nodded. "That thing's seen Kacchan's Quirk, but it hasn't seen Todoroki's flames yet – If you use them, it might throw it off, and then I can get a punch in. If it makes this thing flinch for just a second, you can use your Quirk, Uraraka! And then Todoroki can encase it in ice!"

Mina could have pouted at her lack of things to do, were the situation not far more serious.

"An explosion doesn't bother this thing, but you think fire will? You sure this'lll work?" Todoroki questioned, already getting his stance ready to blast a fireball at his target.

"Not at all." Izuku openly admitted. Though really, he didn't have many other ideas left. The sudden burst of flames would make anything alive recoil, certainly. That was all he needed. But when Quirks were involved, everything changed.

Would this work? Really, there was only one way to find out.

"Blitzkrieg! Get back!"

It didn't take more than a glance from Katsuki to recognize his ally's plans. Yet another fist came swinging at him, and once again, he dodged. He swung his palms towards the creature, detonated his Quirk, and doubled his escape propulsion as a final attack, straight to the face. Another distraction to buy himself a few extra precious seconds before Todoroki had no choice but to unleash his flames.

The explosions didn't do much. The creature took them and just roared again.

The flames though, did much more.

Katsuki had launched himself about five meters from their enemy before Todoroki unleashed his fire powers. Enough space to stay out of the injury radius, and enough so that Todoroki didn't need to hold back with his attack. The Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user had followed the same guidelines that Izuku had stated earlier – They weren't trying to kill their enemy. Just subdue them.

Not that it meant Todoroki held back in the slightest. Within seconds, the full pelt of flames had hit the beast like a fist made of fire, straight into the side of the head. With the extra thick skin that his target had, Todoroki had allowed himself to unleash a hotter flame than he would normally. Enough so that the enemy would feel it.

And feel it, they certainly did.

Sudden unexpected heat and flames engulfed the creature while it was busy tracking Katsuki, causing it to cry outright, and lurch away by basic instinct. Like all beings in nature, flames trigged an averse reaction in the creature. Most creatures in nature though, weren't equipped with thick skin, or a Strength Enhancement and Durability Quirk. It took one single step back, before shielding its face with its arm.

The flames stopped, and the beast flung its arm to its side, ready to charge again.

Only to be met with a solid strike to the centre of the face.

Izuku's plan had been a simple five step process, based entirely on the powers that he had to work with. Since Katsuki was already engaged in combat with the creature, he was step one – A distraction. He simply had to buy time while Todoroki finished making up the ice wall, and re-equalizing his body temperature. Katsuki didn't even need to be told to do what he did. He was a fighter, and would have kept harassing his enemies like that anyway.

His punch had been solid, and he knew that it was. Even at 5%, he could feel the strikes vibrations bounce back into his own body when it connected, and the visceral feeling of striking an enemy surged right through his gut. He could tell he had landed a solid, effective punch just from the feeling of hitting the enemy.

Step two was Todoroki's flames. Due to the creatures thickened skin and Enhanced Durability, conventional attacks wouldn't work. Moreover, this thing seemed to react better when it knew what was coming, and Todoroki's flames were still an unknown at this point. No matter how thick the skin was, any creature was averse to fire, even if their skin couldn't be burnt. Mina's Acid could have been used, but the risk of causing issues for later stages in the plan arose. Fire was the best choice to get a good reaction.

The next step had been his own step. Step three was utilizing the power of One For All for one solid strike to the face. It was far more likely to have a positive effect now that the beasts guard was down. Even on the off chance that it didn't cause that much damage – That was fine. It didn't need to. He was just another distraction.

When he had attacked, he had launched himself into the air to get face to face with his opponent, before slugging them with a right armed reverse punch. And that acted as another bit of great cover for step four.

Uraraka charged right behind the black-haired teenager, using him almost like a human shield that she ran behind as he launched his own attack. This was her opportunity, her change to get in close, and to cause their enemy to float. Once in the air, it wouldn't be an issue – It wouldn't have anything within its reach to attack anything or anyone with.

Her left hand slammed against the creature's chest, each of her finger pads pressing against it's skin as she struck. Zero Gravity took effect, and the creature became weightless.

Next came a right, open palmed uppercut strike, which sent her opponent into the air. "I got him!" Uraraka yelled as the creature began to float into the air in front of her. Her voice was unable to even begin to contain the clear pride and elation that she reasonably felt. She had done her part, arguably the most dangerous and important part, and helped stop this Quirk user from causing any more harm.

Finally, step five. "Freezerburn!" Izuku called out.

Todoroki had the final task – And that was encasing their enemy in ice. With durability like this thing had, ice wouldn't cause its body to shatter, and it seemed like the best way to trap someone with a Strengh Enhancement Quirk.

He never got the chance though.

Before Todoroki, or anyone, could even react to their enemy now hovering a few meters in the air above them, the Quirk user let out a loud, vicious roar that went right through all the Heroes, and swung it's fist like it was launching a reverse punch. Which it did.

Only when the fist was throw, the creature's arm extended. After that, everything happened at once.

The sudden cracking and shock-waves that went into the ground after a sudden strike from such a physically strong opponent sent dust and debris flying, prompting all of the members to cover their eyes as quickly as they could. It had happened so quickly, that was all that could have been done to react. Mina and Uraraka were fortunate, being the only ones to have protective eye-wear as a part of their costumes, though they moved instinctively.

Now that their hand was against the ground, the creature seemed to use this opportunity to fling itself at an acute angle like an elastic band, pushing its hand against the ground to extend, and push its body away. It flung itself high and, since it was under the effects of Zero Gravity, it flung itself high as well. Mina saw the angle it threw itself towards, and watched it as it flew away, tracking where it went.

What was unsettling though was the fact that she recognized that stretching Quirk. It made her entire body feel cold. Her hands trembled as she remembered the three men she had met when she first entered the city, on the day she met Izuku and Katsuki. She remembered how they met them again, only at that point, they then had Quirks, somehow.

Stretching limbs had been one of those Quirks.

But there was no way, was there? All three of them had been arrested, thrown into a prison somewhere. She hadn't heard anything about them in months, and had done her best not to think about them at all. But she remembered his face. Every single detail.

And there was no way that was their ring leader. It couldn't be.

Quirks were numerous, weren't they? Even if only a limited number of people had them, the theoretical number of Quirks that could be made simply didn't have an upper limit, right? So there had to be some overlap, didn't there?

It wasn't him. It couldn't be him.

"Alien Queen!"

Snapping her out of her thoughts, Mina quickly found herself called out to, and a hand landing on her shoulder. Every instinct that she had yelped and she felt herself jump, turning her head and almost attacking the person whom grabbed her.

She stopped herself when she saw it was Izuku. "Mi – Marverick – "

"Are you alright?!" The green-clothed Hero asked, seeming to scan over her for any major injuries.

"I-I'm fine. I didn't get hit. I wasn't close enough for any debris to hit me."

Izuku seemed to let out a sigh of relief, before glancing around. "I don't understand – I thought that things Quirk was Strength Enhancement… Does that mean it's just _naturally_ that strong?... Did you see where it went?!"

The pink girl nodded, and turned around, pointing towards several taller buildings in the same way the creature had gone. They weren't tall enough to be technically skyscrapers, but they were certainly tall enough to tower most civilian dwellings, even apartment blocks like the one Izuku had lived in.

"Somewhere over there." It was a pretty vague area to point out, but it was the most that she could give. She hadn't seen the specific location. She couldn't even be sure that she knew the guy had landed yet.

"Crap..." Izuku seemed to hiss as he spoke, before biting his lower lip. "We can't risk Uraraka undoing her Quirk. We don't know where it'll end up, and it could just go on another rampage. But she's already nearly at her weight limit, and we don't have much time!..." His eyes darted around the place, like he was looking for something that would give him the answers that he needed so desperately. He wouldn't find any answers lying at his feet though. He was The First Generations leader, and he had to take a decision.

Push Uraraka past her breaking point to pursue, or drop the beast, let her recover and take their chances?

"I can keep going!"

Behind Izuku, Mina saw three silhouettes push dust out of the way as they came closer towards the two of them. The rest of her group was okay, thankfully, though they looked far more run down that she did. They had been closer to the impact sight and were covered in dust. Katsuki had a small cut that ran across his cheek, from some stray rock that had been kicked up and tossed randomly, no doubt. It wasn't particularly deep, but a small trail of blood ran across the cut. It would clean up easily.

Uraraka was right in the centre, and Mina could easily see why Izuku was concerned. "Are you alright?!" Automatically came out of Mina's mouth.

"Yeah." Uraraka gave her and Izuku a weak thumbs up. "That guy was a lot heavier than I thought he'd be."

"I thought your weight limit was two tons?"

"Like I said - Heavier than I thought he'd be."

"We can't push her any further." Katsuki said flatly. "I don't feel like getting puked on."

"Nice to hear you care so much about me." Uraraka replied, a sarcastic dry wit to her sentence, before becoming far more serious. "We don't really have the time to debate it though, do we? If we let that guy go on another rampage, then everything here's been for nothing."

She was right, and everyone knew it. Even Katsuki, most of his face covered by his mask, knew fully well that if they didn't stop another rampage, then their names would be dragged though the mud before they ever even started. It would make their lives so much more difficult. Maybe even impossible.

They couldn't fail. Not after a debut like this. And that didn't even go onto the most important thing. If they didn't, people could get killed. And the Quirked would be blamed for it. If they stopped it, then they could at least create an equilibrium of some kind.

After all their build up, at this point, they couldn't give up. They couldn't lose, and they couldn't risk more damage being done.

"…She's right." Izuku muttered under his breath, though it was clear he didn't like this. "Damn it… Infinity Girl, I need you to use your Quirk on all of us. We need to get everyone over there as quick as we can."

The brunette responded with a smile and a nod, although both were immensely strained. "Leave it to me."

"We don't have the time to set up the ropes – Everyone needs to just grab as tight a hold onto each other as they can."

"Oh yeah, this'll fucking end well." Katsuki flatly spoke, as sarcastic as he could. "Let's fly through the air with nothing to grip onto but the other person in front of us. This'll go great."

"Do you have a better idea?" Todoroki asked, neutrally.

Katsuki growled. "If I had a better idea, I wouldn't even fucking be here." A roundabout way of admitting he didn't, but it was an admission nonetheless. As he grunted, he got himself into position.

Izuku went at the front, Mina second, Uraraka third, Todoroki forth, and Katsuki fifth. Izuku would use his Quirk to leap and pull the rest, and Katsuki could use his explosions to propel them from behind. Uraraka was in the center to try and make the journey easier for her, though it wasn't sure how effective this would be. One thing the group had quickly realized was that Izuku was playing a lot of this by ear.

He was just as unsure about this Heroism thing as the rest of them. "Are you guys ready?"

Silence was his response. Nods of affirmation, and expressions that steeled themselves for the journey were the only responses that he got.

"Infinity Girl!" He called. And Uraraka got to work.

She quickly ran across the line, affecting all of them with Zero Gravity, before returning to her own place, and trying her best not to throw up.

"Hang on!"

One For All surged through his body, and Izuku pushed from his legs as hard as he could, launching himself into the sky.

Moving around with Zero Gravity was always a weird experience to Izuku. Just having a Quirk was an odd feeling to him, having grown up without one his whole life. The idea that people lived their entire lives with their amazing powers was an odd thing to think about for him, but that was just part of being born Quirkless, he felt. Feeling raw power surge throughout his body was an odd feeling itself.

Doing so while the affects of gravity were nearly completely counteracted as beyond bizarre for him. And also, absolutely _terrifying_.

A permanent feeling of falling to the ground, despite making on giant, upwards leap that showed no signs of falling off quite just yet. The five of them surged right through the sky, using only steel grips to make sure they didn't fall. Behind him, Izuku could hear the sound of periodic explosions from a one handed Katsuki, propelling them throughout the dark night. It was horrifying. And exciting. But mostly horrifying. He felt his heart beating so hard he could practically taste it. And yet, that same smile that he talked about – That a Hero should wear whenever in the face of danger - Was etched right across his face

He wanted to both throw up and throw his hands into the air like he was on a roller-coaster.

Without weight, excluding Uraraka's, to slow them down, the group moved at incredible speeds. It didn't even take them a full minute to reach the buildings Mina had pointed out. Only a few minutes had passed since the Quirk user had flung himself with his Stretching Quirk, so the group had been prepared to actually scan around the area, search and comb every street if they had to. It turned out, they didn't need to.

As they approached the rough area Mina had pointed out, a sudden, loud shattering of glass, followed by another sudden shock wave blasting off one of the taller parts of one of the taller buildings. Once the dust settled, their opponent was there, clinging onto the nearby walls, and using it's Stretching powers to punch holes into the building.

In the city, these sorts of buildings were used for office workers, and would be filled to the brim with expensive equipment, and more importantly, lots and lots of people. Salary workers who were just trying to make a living. The lights on said building were all lit up, presumably with the cleaners. Or if the company was particularly well staffed, night shift workers. Something Izuku hoped wasn't the case.

What were the options here at this point? Did they jump into the building and try to kick the Quirk user off? If they fell from the height that they were at, it would kill them, no matter how tough their skin was. No question. Especially now that they knew that wasn't its Quirk.

But saving people was more important. And if they had to hurt this thing, or worse to protect people… Was that justified? Was that the right thing to do?

If someone looked at the numbers, many would say yes. But for the idea of what Heroism was supposed to represent? What Heroes were supposed to be? The question became a lot more morally grayer.

Was this how Heroes were going to first appear? In a shower of blood?

But would that be better? Wouldn't it be better to look like that if it showed people that they were willing to do whatever it took to protect them? Would it create a better look for Quirked people though?

Or just make them look more dangerous to an already paranoid population?

As they came closer to the building, the creature spotted them, flying towards them at high speeds. It let out another shrill cry, like it was yelling at them to stay away from it. Or it was egging them on. Nothing about the creature was predictable under any conventional circumstances.

And then, it launched a fist towards them.

There wasn't anything any of them could do to stop the incoming attack. If they let go, they would risk flying off in a random direction. Even if they had been able to react, the creature had extended its arm at such a speed, that most of them probably wouldn't have had the reflexes to do anything about it anyway.

Izuku had kept his eye on it though. And he did the only thing that he could think to do.

The attack came straight from the front, directed towards him.

So he activated his Quirk, and raised his right fist. He still didn't have perfect control over One For All, never mind for using it to fight. He wasn't entirely certain of the physics of using his Quirk in the way that he planned to use it. The alternative was absolute certain major injury, and maybe even death.

When faced with that kind of choice, the decision practically made itself.

He timed it as perfectly as he could. And then, once his opponents fist was just within range, he slammed it down on top. He used his arm as a level, relying on the kinetic force from the downwards strike to swing his arm, and by extension, his comrades, up and over the incoming attack. The good news was that it worked – They flew right over the rest of the creatures fist, and flew straight towards the building.

Except, the bad news was the fact that each and every one of them lost hold of the other.

" _Oh, Craaaaap!"_

The same momentum that had saved them flung them from one another's grips, sending them off flying in various, random directions towards the building. All of them yelled out as they felt themselves being flung at speed towards the concrete building, nothing they could do to stop it.

One For All's inheritor felt himself smash straight through one of the glass windows, hearing the glass shatter more than he saw it, as he had taken to covering his eyes as he collided with the see through material. He was lucky. He didn't suffer any cuts at all. He had landed well and with how he had shielded his exposed skin, while he felt glass bounce off of him, it didn't cut him. He collided with what felt like a plastic wall, which was knocked straight over, and he fell right on top of it.

"Oww…" He groaned as he sat up, opening up one eye and quickly glancing the area. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone around on the floor. The lights were still on, probably from a janitor that had been cleaning up, and had fled once they felt the building shake after it was attacked. He had also landed on a cubical wall, and had narrowly avoided slamming his head into the side of their desk.

Immediately he noticed that he wasn't under the effects of Zero Gravity anymore. Had Uraraka broke, or willingly undone her Quirk? Had she already landed? What about everyone else? Had they landed in the same building as he had?

"Wooooahhh!" As he looked towards the same no destroyed window he had collided through, Izuku saw the unmistakable color scheme that was Mina's Hero costume, spiraling towards the same floor that he was on.

Getting onto his feet, he quickly ran close to her, and opened his arms wide to cushion her landing with his own body. She slammed into him with immense force. "Ooof!"

"Ouch!... Midori?" Forgetting their code-names for a moment, Mina looked up towards Izuku's face as she saw the face of what she had collided with. For a moment, she was confused, wondering why the wall that she must had hit looked a lot like a boy with black hair underneath his hoodie. It took her a moment to realize that this was the actual aforementioned boy. She blinked again, and repeated herself. "What the - Midori?"

"Are you alright?!"

"…Coulda sworn we just did this back on the ground." Mina allowed herself to smirk, before finding her own footing again. Zero Gravity always made her feel disoriented. She wondered how on earth Uraraka managed to use it every day. "I'm fine. Nothing cut or broken, thanks to you."

The green-eyed boy let out a small sigh of relief. "Did you see where the others landed?"

Quickly, Mina shook her head.

"Okay – We need to – "

Before Izuku could finish his sentence, a loud road suddenly echoed from the floors below them. Suddenly, the building began to shake, and Izuku could feel the sudden, loud, and body racking thuds, and for a moment he didn't have a clue what it was doing. Was it trying to knock the whole building down?!

Crunches and the shakes got louder and rougher, and Izuku realized quickly that it wasn't because the Quirk user was getting more and more destructive.

No. They were getting _closer_.

As soon as he realized this, an enormous, purple hand suddenly shattered another pane of glass nearby, and slammed against the ground, using it like a ledge to pull up the rest if it's enormous, muscular and scarred body. The creature pulled its head up, and upon seeing the two of them, let out a loud, deafening scream. If it was from fear, or as a warning to stay away. It then continued to climb up, stretching it's arms to climb even higher.

"We've got to keep following." Izuku said firmly. "We can't… I think that it might have backup coming to the roof… We need to figure out what we're up against."

"I knew the name Maverick suited you." Mina jested. "You think the others are okay?"

"They're fine. I'm certain. They're strong… I'll need your help though." As much as he wanted to, he couldn't fight alone. He simply wasn't strong enough to do that. He needed backup. And since Mina was the only one who was nearby, they would have to come up with a way of fighting that involved both Acid and physical attacking.

Mina smirked. "I'm with you."

* * *

 **This chapter ended up being so much longer than I thought it would, but I wanted to get it out because it's been off for a while and I'm determined to see this story through. I ended up changing the ending to this one, and will use the old ending of this as the beginning for the next chapter.**

 **It's been… an incredibly stressful and busy week for me. There is much stress my way and I've been trying to keep up with writing as much as possible. Four four page comic assignments, a fan Izumina comic I'm trying to make for my Tumblr, organizing a website – all in the space of a two week time period – I'm running on soda and determination at this point, guys. It's been stressful and I'm in a stat of permanent tiredness. So, if this chapter seems rushed, or bad compared to the others – I am sorry. I tried my best. I love FG, and I want to do the story well, but good God other things are eating my time away.**

 **I hope you managed to enjoy this chapter regardless – It's been one that I've gone over in my head quite a few times, so I hope it comes out well. And ill see you next time. See ya!**


	22. Nomu

"Urgh… Nice fucking fling, Deku."

Katsuki was on his back, his arms flung at either side of him as he looked up to the ceiling, in a daze. When he had bene thrown, he'd gone right through a window, and skimmed across the ground. When he finally stopped, he was on his back, looking up at the roof with absolutely no focus whatsoever to him.

The back of his left hand had a nasty cut on it, but it wasn't anything particularly deep. More like a paper-cut than anything else, though he suspected that it might scar. It certainly wasn't shy about leaking out blood. For some reason though, it didn't bother him.

Being thrown like that, at that speed and through a window had left him disorientated and slightly dizzy. Normally, he could have used his Quirk to help balance him out as he flew towards the building, but everything had happened to quickly he hadn't been able to. Besides, what had his options there been? If he hadn't gone through the window, he would have almost certainly fallen all the way down to the ground.

So this was probably preferable.

He wasn't in any particular pain either, despite the cut on the back of his hand. If anything, there was a surge of exhilaration throughout his body, though it wouldn't transmit that to his brain. He didn't really feel much of anything.

"Blitzkrieg?" Not Deku's voice. Not Ashido's either. Or Uraraka's.

Tilting his head just slightly to see who it was, he was greeted by Todoroki suddenly standing over him. He seemed a lot less injured than he was, and he wasn't particularly out of it. Chunks of ice clung onto his body. Had he used his ice as a shield of some sort?

If anyone was going to survive being slammed into a building at who knew what height, it was probably going to end up being him. His ice generation gave him the most leeway for survival.

"Are you alright?" The hooded teenager knelt down and tapped his shoulders lightly, checking for concussion. The building shook, and some of the glass that hung to the frame that Katsuki had been flung through fell. "Here, how many fingers am I holding up?" Todoroki held up three fingers.

Katsuki held up his middle finger and flipped him off.

"Yeah, you're fine." Todoroki stood back onto both his feet, and offered his friend a hand to help him get back onto his feet. Katsuki accepted, and was back onto his feet in just a couple of seconds. "You think you're alright to keep going?"

"You take me for a fucking weakling?" Rubbing his eyes for tears that had come from barely blinking and dust, Katsuki blinked, and his red eyes and pupils returned to their normal ratios. "I'm good. I'm dizzy but that isn't gonna stop me."

Now that he was on his feet, and took the time to realize where exactly he was, something occurred to him that hadn't when he was on the ground – Aside from him and Todoroki, there wasn't anyone else on this floor with them.

"Where're the others?"

"I think Alien Queen and Maverick landed on a below us. I kind of saw them when I was headed this way."

"And Infinity Girl?"

Todoroki didn't say anything, instead glancing just through the window, and gritting his teeth. When he finally did speak, it was quietly, and slowly. "I'm… I'm not sure. I didn't – "

Without needing another word, Katsuki made his way to the broken window as quickly as he could in his wobbly, disoriented state, and squinted his eyes, trying to see if the Zero Gravity Quirk user was anywhere to be spotted. He scanned the area quickly, attracted to the brighter colors from this high up. He blinked a few times, and rubbed his eyes again, hoping that he'd catch some sign of her.

Uraraka had already gone towards her weight limit when she had used her Quirk on that creature-thing, and had pushed herself well over the limit by Zero G'ing the rest of them here. To anyone who didn't know how resilient and strong she could be when she wanted to be, they might have assumed that she had fallen to her death – After all, since she wasn't affected by Zero Gravity herself when Deku's swing had occurred, she would have fallen down a lot sooner.

Katsuki knew better though. And he knew that she wouldn't let herself fall without a fight. He knew how she trained, and knew what she trained.

He knew she was okay. It wasn't a matter of if.

"She fell off a lot sooner than the rest of us." Todoroki told him as he made his was towards the edge himself. "I haven't had the chance to scan from – "

"There." Katsuki pointed.

Maybe ten, or fifteen floors down – It was still immensely high above the street level, but he saw her.

She had used her Quirk on herself – Something that she had been trying to learn how to do properly without throwing up since the idea of Heroism had been put into her head by Deku. It was something she'd only had a limited amount of success with, but she was still doing her best to train herself with it even further.

Right now, it had no doubt saved her life.

"Fucking useless Infinity Girl." Katsuki muttered underneath his breath. "Can't even fuckin' get her Quirk working quickly. The fuck sort of Hero d'you hope to be? The fuck you even doing here, for that matter?..."

"Blitz – "

"You meet up with the others." Katsuki said, taking a few steps away from the window. His hands opened and closed from fists to claws, like he was preparing himself for use of his Quirk. They're gonna need you and your Quirk more than she will."

"More than – "

"I'll grab her."

Todoroki didn't even get the chance to try to stop Katsuki, before he had charged and leaped straight out of the building, and allowed gravity to send him plummeting towards the Earth.

Sure, perhaps Todoroki could have made a bridge, or a net or something with his ice generation – But it would have taken time, something that they weren't in an exact abundance of. Deku and Ashido were going to need Todoroki's powers a lot more than they would need Explosion. Dividing up this way made sense.

With his left palm, he generated an enormous explosion, focused far more on being as loud and as bright as possible to catch the attention of the Zero Gravity Quirk user, and alert her of his presence. It worked immediately, and she turned to look at the source, which was now shooting straight towards her. At the distance they were working from, Katsuki couldn't really tell any of the features of her face apart, of make out any expression that she was making.

If previous account was anything to go by though, she was probably trying to hold in a mouthful of vomit.

Now that he had her attention, He used explosions more focused on power to try to slow down his fall, which, to a certain extent, let him fly around when he was leaping from the ground up. Gravity had a far stronger pull on him right now though, so the closest that he could do was slow down his fall, and try to reach a falling speed where he could meet with Uraraka and grab hold of her.

The issue with this, was that it _hurt_ – The more Explosions that he used, the more strain and recoil that his palms began to experience. Continued detonation was bad for his body, and it wasn't suited for immense long-term use, especially not when the biggest opponent was the planets gravity. It also didn't help that the cut on the back of his hand was now starting to throb in reaction to the detonations that he was letting off.

Not that he was letting that stop him.

He dropped, but slower, and with course correction, he managed to inch closer to Uraraka, whom just watched him with squinting eyes, until he was close enough to yell and give her one, clear, concise instruction.

"Zero G me!"

Uraraka acted immediately, understanding clearly what she was supposed to do. Once Katsuki was within arm's reach, she very quickly grabbed hold of him, and moved herself around, so that her body was against his back. Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, and then she activated her Quirk against him, cancelling gravity's effects on him.

With no force pulling him down towards the ground, Katsuki's explosions began to have propulsion to them. His trademarked grin spread across his lips as he unleashed a pair of simultaneous blasts from his palms, this time, sending the pair of them higher into the air.

They didn't go too far – Maybe a single floor or two, but the goal wasn't necessarily to get higher, but rather, just to find a way to get back inside before Uraraka's Quirk wore off. With her in the state that she was in, they had maybe a few seconds before her body just gave up entirely.

The very second that another window came into view, Katsuki's arms extended, one towards the open sky, and one towards said window – And let loose detonations in each. One for the window, and two for the open air. The first blast to equalize their location while the window was shattered. The second, to push them in.

Once they were in, Katsuki fell onto his knees, while Uraraka fell off of him and onto the ground, immediately retching and throwing up what she'd been trying to keep down from overusing her Quirk so much.

"Ergh, watch it!"

"Sorry, sorry…" The Zero Gravity girl muttered weakly, wiping her mouth and taking in a few deep breaths. After a few moments, she used her other hand to wipe the tears from her eyes that had welled up, and collapsed onto the ground.

The pair of them just spent a couple of seconds regaining their breath, and recomposing themselves. Katsuki's palms flared up and stung, but he would be fine if he had a minute or two of rest from using his Quirk. Uraraka meanwhile just focused on breathing, calming the twists and turns going on in her stomach, and getting the strength back into her muscles.

Katuski, if he was being honest, wanted to run right to the top of the building, where that lumbering behemoth… Thing had been headed. Deku and the others would be there, and they would need all the help that they could get against that thing. He wanted to be there to help combat their opponent.

He couldn't leave Uraraka like she was though. So as much as it irritated at him, he would wait until she was ready to go.

"Th… Thanks…" Between breaths, Uraraka managed to let out a few words. "You… You saved me."

"Well, now we're even then."

Puzzled, Uraraka glanced at him, wondering what it was that he was talking about. They were even now? What –

Her mind quickly then jumped back to their first meeting, and how they, along with Izuku, had been attacked by both the boy's old classmates, and how Katsuki had fought them off as much as he could, but hadn't been able to notice one of them that he had thought to have knocked out sneaking up behind him. And how she had moved without even really thinking about it, utilizing her Quirk and the speed she had picked up…

And he'd remembered all of that? They hadn't talked about it much after the first couple of weeks, and it was just an incident that she hadn't thought much of. While it was her first true exposure to the brutality of the Quirkless and their unequal world, she had eventually written it off. She'd seen so much worse, and knew for absolute certainty that Katsuki had…

"You… Seriously remembered that?" Part of her wanted to laugh. Of course he'd be petty enough to –

"Of course I remember the fucking day we met!"

A moment of total silence fell between the two of them as the words actually registered with Uraraka. She blinked, hard and somehow felt that she had heard something that had not, in any way, been intended for her to hear.

Which was confirmed a few moments later when Katsuki's cheeks started to light up. As he yelled, Uraraka could have sworn that his voice became louder, like he was trying to hide fluster behind it. "That – _That is not what I_ – "

"Too late." A smile quickly made its way onto the Zero Gravity Quirk users lips. "Can't take it back now."

"I'll take whatever the fuck I want back!"

"Sure." Her smile evolved into a smirk.

"Fuck off!"

"Whatever you say." Uraraka got onto her feet, and quickly dusted down her costume. She was still rather dizzy and queasy from her hovering stunt, but she couldn't let that stop her. Not after everything that was still left to do. "That thing was probably heading to the roof, right? I think I'm good now. We should go."

"Don't ignore me! And don't give me orders, damn it!"

Katsuki shouted and swore, but he followed Uraraka anyway.

* * *

By the time that Izuku had ran up all the flights of stairs in the building, he felt like his legs were about to fall off. They were burning, and they hurt, but if he stopped for even a moment, he knew that he could easily lose this creature, and he couldn't afford to lose it.

Keeping up with him, surprisingly, Mina didn't even seem too bothered by all the stairs. Mostly it was her natural athleticism at work that let her go on for extended periods of time without any fatigue, but she was used to having to run away from people trying to proclaim her as some sort of animal or witch. She'd ended up being faster than most people, so if she could thank the Quirkless for one thing, that would be it.

Izuku had lost count of how many flights of stairs that they had run up. It had to be more then fifteen, at the very least, though he couldn't be certain.

Amusingly, Mina had suggested using the elevator, and even went as far as to try calling it. It was broken though, probably due to the impacts on the building shaking something that was never designed to be shook dislodging and loosening it. So, they had no choice but to stick to the stairs.

How long it took them to actually reach the rooftop, Izuku didn't know that either. He'd stopped keeping track of these things around the seventh flight, and was relying more on determination and tenacity to not just fall int a pile of sweaty mush on the ground. Eventually though, they reached the top floor.

The door leading to the rooftop, unsurprisingly, was locked. One dose of Mina's Acid later though, and it was unlocked.

She and him both flung the door open and charged right out onto the rooftop. Immediately, Mina checked how much space that they had to work with – Falling to her death certainly was one of the last ways she felt like going out. They were working with about thirty-five square meters, and a waist-high concrete guard that was in place to stop people from just walking off, though getting thrown off, it certainly wouldn't save them from that. It wasn't a small amount of space by any means, and certainly, it was a lot more than Mina had been fearing. Still, it wasn't a lot of space either. Scanning what they had to work with took less than two seconds. Then she focused on the same thing Izuku had been from the start.

It was as Izuku had predicted. The creature had made its way onto them roof, and almost seemed like it was waiting for someone to pick it up. It wasn't really moving outside it's raising chest, which was from it's breathing. Its cold eyes seemed to dart towards the pair of them, though that seemed to be about it as far as warnings went. Now it wasn't just attacking. Now, it was waiting.

For something, or for someone, neither Izuku nor Mina knew.

"What do you wanna do?" Mina asked, keeping her eyes firmly on the beast. This was Izuku's mission, and it was his call. She'd back him up the best she could.

Adjusting his hood, Izuku gritted his teeth, his eyes narrowed, and his brain ran at a hundred miles an hour. He was trusting his instincts at this point, and his instincts were telling him that this thing – Whatever it was – Wasn't Human. At least, not anymore. It might have been at one point, but I wasn't anymore. Too many theories on what this thing even was.

The one that stood out to him to him most though, was the stretching.

It was the same kind of stretching that the ones who had kidnapped Katsuki had somehow attained. And while similar Quirks had to exist in the world, this was virtually in the same location. With how varied every single Quirk in the world was, and how they were all unique depending on the individual, and how few Quirked people there statistically were, what were the chances that someone would have almost the same Quirk in this city?

Low, at best, and at worst, borderline impossible.

At the time, Izuku had just assumed that they had developed Quirks suddenly, and been unable to accept that about themselves. Acting like nothing had changed so that they could still be a part of the larger society. But really, what were the chances of that? Three adult males, all Quirkless, who all knew one another, developing Quirks around the same time, a short time after being beaten while harassing a girl they figured out was Quirked?

There was no chance. So if that was the case… Somehow, they had gained their Quirks artificially.

And if they had gained Quirks artificially… Then who was to say that… What ever this thing was…

Also wasn't artificial?

"Maverick."

Izuku suddenly felt a sharp jab against his arm. Mina's elbow had nudged him, trying to get his attention. It wasn't until she had done this, and brought him out of his thinking, that he realized that he was sweaty all over, and that his teeth were gritted harshly against one another. He unclenched his jaw and took a deep breath.

One thing that was clear was that this thing didn't seem to have any individual drive of its own. It seemed to just be following a set of orders. It didn't have any independence.

So, did that mean it was alive, or was it just a husk?

Did he place this things life on the same pedestal as he did his friends'?

What was it that a Hero was supposed to do in a situation like this?

"A-Alien Queen, we're going to – "

"What the hell is that?!"

Izuku hadn't even managed to get out his sentence before thing began to happen around the creature. Something he couldn't blame Mina for reacting as vocally to as she had done.

From out of literally nowhere, like it was phasing into being entirely of its own accord, spiral like dark clouds of black fog seemed to warp right into existence right next to the very being that they had been chasing this entire time. The blots of fog seemed to grow larger and larger in size, spinning into larger circles, until they were roughly the size of an average human in height. In terms of colour, they were anything in-between pure black, and a dark purple.

Was it from some kind of Quirk? Izuku didn't have even the slightest idea what else it could be. From the creature in front of them? Another Quirk on top of the superhuman strength and the stretching?

Out of the spirals, a foot emerged. And following that, an entire body. And then, a face.

A face Izuku instantly recognized, even when it was covered up.

"The First Generation, in the flesh… The first people who thought about using their Quirks to help people who keep persecuting them…" There was a sinister chuckle, and a trace of humor and amusement in the voice that this person had. "So interesting…"

From the spirals, what Mina now could compare to portals, was a very skinny young man, maybe in his late teens, or early twenties in age. He was arched forward, his arms hanging by his sides with absolutely no indications that he was twitching or moving, or making any effort to do anything other than allow them to just hang freely by his side, like they were just useless extremities and nothing more. His skin was pale, and wrinkled. His face was hidden, and the clothing he wore was as plain as the black that his baggy shirt and sweatpants were.

What was the far more noticeable, and most horrifying about this person, was the hands that clung onto their body. Disembodied, pale hands, that seemed to emotionlessly hold onto whatever parts of the body that they had been put onto, including one that covered up his face. Where those hands came from was the most horrifying aspect of this person. It spoke volumes about this person, without a single word being spoken about him.

Blue, unkempt hair, and, through out of the gaps between the fingers on the hand on his face, a bright red eye peered through. His hands – The ones attached to his arms – Were just as limp, and seemingly lifeless as the rest of him.

"Shigaraki…" Izuku felt his teeth grit, and his lips curl down into a frown. He didn't want to believe it, but to his own dismay, he found that he easily could. His words had come out like a whisper, not even accounting for his clenched jaw.

Tomura Shigaraki. One of the first few Quirked people that Izuku and Katsuki had managed to help, who just so happened to be related to the person who granted Toshinori-sensei One For All. They had taken him to Yuuei, but he had run. Run away to who had known where. He had shown signs of clear mental instability, and while they had wanted to help him overcome those issues, his Decay Quirk meant no cell they had could contain him, short of cutting his hands off.

The fact he somehow was involved in…. Whatever that creature was, didn't surprise Izuku. Somehow, he felt like he should have seen it coming. Shigaraki had always been a lot more aggressive to the Quirkless than even Katsuki had been at the lowest point in his life. When it came to ideology, he and Izuku were polar opposites. But that didn't stop Izuku from trying to help.

Had he been involved in this sort of… Whatever this was the whole time?

Following Shigaraki, another figure had arrived and come out of the portal, this time from a figure Izuku couldn't even begin to recognize. Mutilated, burnt skin in segments all over their arms and face, with charcoal black hair and piercing blue eyes. He didn't even know what this person was, or who they were supposed to be. An associate, or an ally of Shigaraki's now?

Whoever it was, they emitted the feeling of danger, just from appearance alone.

"Who… Who are you supposed to be?!" Mina, tired of just being in the dark, raised her voice, demanding an explanation. Her hands were coated in Acid, ready to strike if she had to.

The response to this was a show of force from the second arrival. As soon as he saw Mina's Acid seep from her glove, his hands immediately ignited into blue flames. His own Quirk.

While Izuku was still stunned, the sudden display of power reminded him that right now, the focus was on the creature, and if Shigaraki had something to do with it, then that was the way things had to be. He couldn't allow himself to hesitate. Especially not with Mina here. Full Cowl began to spark right out of his body, the static from One For All crackling in the air around him.

Only for Shigaraki to make the first movement that indicated any real signs of life- Holding his hands up between both his companion and the two opposite him. "We're all Quirked here, aren't we? Let's try not to _kill_ each other yet."

Special emphasis had been put on the word 'Kill'. A sinister amount of emphasis.

Izuku felt his body tense. He knew the kind of person that Shigaraki was, and talking normally was the last thing that he felt like doing. Now, he was trying to prevent a conflict? Had he grown, or did he want something? Maybe he was curious.

That was probably what it was.

"Is… Is that thing yours?" Izuku made himself ask.

"Yes." The answer was sudden and simple. "Nomu was mostly a way of getting your attention. It looks like it worked."

Nomu? Was that what that thing was called? "What… What is it?"

"It." Shigaraki seemed to allow his body to sway to the side slightly. "An interesting choice of phrasing. What makes you think that a fellow Quirked isn't a person?"

"It can't talk. It didn't react to anything in a way anyone else would. When we got here, it didn't attack us, even though it was trying to escape." There were many observations Izuku could make about why this thing wasn't a person – At least not anymore. But those stood out the most to him. That and… "…And it has a Quirk I've seen before."

"You have, have you?" The slightest bit of laughter could be heard. "I guess this wouldn't fool a Hero like you…"

"L… Like us?"

"Heroes." He stated, his head craning back to look towards the night sky. "What a bizarre concept." An odd smirk made its way onto what was visible of his mouth. Teeth could be seen under a certain light. "We're born into a society that has labelled us as freaks of nature, and tries to contain, and eradicate us. We're born with abilities that we don't even understand, and we're blamed for them."

The tone that he used seemed to have changed dramatically. It now seemed less amused, and angrier. But almost forcefully so, like he was trying to make himself sound angry. The sudden shift in his mood made Izuku shudder. He'd always known Shigaraki as a flippant sort, but he seemed to have degraded since last they spoke.

"And you know something?"

With sudden force, Shigaraki's limp hand suddenly slammed into the nearest thing that was next to him and solid – That being one of the barriers that prevented them all from falling. The second all of his fingers made contact, the stone began to crumble and disintegrate as though it was one of the most fragile materials that had ever been made. It became nothing within his hands.

"You piss me off." This time, real anger. "You wear your get up and use your Quirks to try to… Do whatever it is you did at those docks. Trapping an entire Yakuza operation – What do you intend to do? Save people? Stop crime? Show everyone how upstanding you can be while using your Quirks?"

"That's – That's exactly what we intend to do!" Izuku found his voice, crisp and clear.

"To protect a people that subjugate and segregate." Shigaraki's sinister chuckling began to come back. His companion seemed unamused, but irritated, the flames around his hands glowing brighter. "Do you enjoy challenging yourself? Is the final boss more fun that way?"

"Final boss?"

"Or are you trying to go about this the hard way, in search of achievements?"

"Shigaraki." For the first time, Shigaraki's companion spoke. "The Nomu. We came for it, not to talk."

"And when do you think we'll have another chance to speak like this to them, Dabi?"

Dabi. The name of the blue flame Quirk user. An alias, to be certain. It translated to the word cremation, which certainly wasn't his actual name. Still, it was something to work with, Izuku supposed.

One of the biggest questions right now, was if Shigaraki recognized him. The way he spoke, the way he acted so indifferent and certain about the way that he acted, being vastly more preachy than Izuku remembered, indicated that he didn't have even the first clue who he was underneath the mask and the hood. It didn't seem like he did. Nothing he did seemed to indicate he did. His interest seemed far more in trying to understand – Or taunt – His newfound opponents. For what purpose was unclear, or if it was merely just for his own amusement.

"Maverick, right?" He addressed Izuku directly. "You're the leader here. You're an obvious boss here – Are you familiar with a Ryu Sutoret?"

The holder of One For All felt his blood run cold. That was the name of one of the men whom was responsible for harassing Mina, and kidnapping Katsuki.

"Ryu was Quirkless, and spent a lot of his days hunting Quirked people to beat and mug, even if they had done nothing wrong. A certain girl with pink skin wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time." Mina's breathing cut itself off as she relived the terrifying situation in her head. Even though her face was completely concealed by her masks, she felt naked, knowing that this person was talking about her as though she were another person entirely. It made her shake. "He was beaten, by another person with a Quirk."

Shigaraki smirked.

"And then, he came to us."

Suddenly, Izuku's eyes and ears were entirely focused on Shigaraki. Ryu Sutoret had approached the group Shigaraki was with? Were they finally going to get some answers?

"They wanted the ability to beat those who had humiliated them. So, my sensei granted them Quirks he had taken from Quirked who weren't worthy of wielding them. After being defeated again though, Ryu proved he was not worthy either."

Izuku's eyes narrowed. "Why are you telling us this?"

"You wanted to know what my Nomu is, did you not?"

Izuku's jaw clenched.

"Well, here he is."

Izuku's heart pounded. His suspicions, what he had ruled out as insane, had actually been made a reality.

"What… What did you do?" Mina felt herself feel ill, but something about how personal this matter had compelled her to speak, loudly and clearly. Her eyes focused onto the Nomu, still motionless, like it was a machine devoid of orders. This – This thing – This was one of the men who had tried to harm her when she first arrived in this city?

This was one of the attackers that Izuku had defended her from?

"Call it, forced evolution. A cheat code." The way Shigaraki talked so flippantly and casually about it would make it seem like it was something totally normal. Like he wasn't aware of the barbarity that he implied he was involved with. "He's been augmented – With a superhuman level of strength, and durable body functions. He's an unstoppable beast that's designed to cause as much destruction against the Quirkless as possible." The more words he spoke, the more it sounded like Shigaraki was trying not to burst out into laughter. "He's entirely dependent on what I say, and won't do anything outside the orders I give him."

"So… So you ordered… Your 'Nomu', to attack in the city… Just to get our attention?" It shouldn't be possible, but it made way too much sense. The stretching was explained, and the seemingly random attack also was now explained.

Plus, he was currently the holder of a Quirk passed down to him – Something that shouldn't be possible either. He was a walking contradiction, so he didn't really have much of a right to consider something that seemed impossible to be impossible.

"Didn't you hear my explanation the last time?" Shigaraki smirked. "The thing is completely brain-dead, if it makes you feel any better. But you won't save this one, 'Heroes.' How sad, your first outing ends in being unable to save anything or anyone." The delight he felt in this was palpable. Like he took a personal, perverse glee in gutting a hole into what the ideal of Heroism was supposed to be.

Why?

So many questions. So few answers, or hints to work with.

What did they do?

What –

Suddenly, and loudly, the soundings of the wind being chopped as something of intense speed and power began to approach their location. Izuku recognized the sound immediately, but he didn't quite seem to register it as quick. Before even a few seconds had passed, Izuku realized what was happening as the sound got closer. The Doppler Effect was in full swing. Maybe it had been surveying the damage caused when the 'Nomu' had been climbing up the side of the building, and that had helped mask the noise, or maybe it was because they had been so focused on the tasks at hand that they had just unconsciously blocked out all their other senses.

The full force of the noise came through when it reached the top of the skyscraper.

A news station aligned helicopter, surveying the events, potentially for live reporting.

Suddenly, the situation that Izuku and Mina found themselves in was all far too clear. The idea had been exposure and showing off what Quirks could do to protect the Quirkless. Media attention was inevitable. Hell, Izuku wanted it. He wanted people to know who The First Generation were. The idea was to be known, so people would see that they didn't mean any harm, that they could help by using their Quirks. But right now, in such a sensitive situation?

This was bad.

Every move, every choice they made, could now be broadcast to nearly every person in the entire country. Probably in the entire world, thanks to the internet. In a situation already tense enough, without knowing that the first look at the First Generation by any news station, would be one where they had to confront other Quirked, whom had less than peaceful intent.

A build up to something like this, signs that they wouldn't act harshly without needing to.. .Just, something to give people at least a reason to suspect that they weren't evil people.

The tone, no matter what the context, would be set here. Violence, or peace, or something between the two of them. Whatever happened here would set the tone.

"Ah!" Shigaraki's arms flung open as the helicopter, and presumably its crew, laid eyes upon the standoff. "The audience you Heroes seek has finally arrived!"

"Enough posturing, Shigaraki. Let's get the Nomu through the Warp Gate."

Shigaraki knew. Somehow, Izuku could tell that the person he once rescued knew the same thing as him. Even if Izuku made a move now, even if all evidence pointed towards Shigaraki's group, The First Generation would be the ones who were given the finger of blame.

If a fight started here, it wouldn't be because Shigaraki attacked them. It would be because Izuku attacked them.

So, did they become the aggressors and try to stop the culprits behind these attacks get away, or did they let them leave, in order to do it all again?

What did they do? Izuku had been planning on somehow incapacitating Shigaraki, but like this, in a contextless void, as far as onlookers would be concerned? What would be the outcome? For all the people who saw this knew, the Nomu was a part of the First Generation. How would they all react? What options – No.

Izuku knew what he was going to do. He had probably made his mind up the moment that he learned that this Nomu was brain-dead, and that if left unchecked, it was going to cause more destruction, in the hands of people who had proven that they were ruthless and brutal in getting what they wanted, and doing what they wanted, regardless of the pain that they would end up causing to people who had nothing to do with the situation.

He had no idea what Shigaraki's group was, what he'd been doing since he left, and how far he'd fallen into this web of evil actions. He didn't know why Shigaraki was here, or what he hoped to achieve, or why. What it was about him that had started this spiral into the world that he was now a part of, he didn't know. How much of this was planned, he didn't know.

To be perfectly, honest, as he looked at the helicopter that had come out of seemingly nowhere, he realized that he didn't really know much about anything about the situation.

Except what Heroism was supposed to be.

Heroes were supposed to save people. They were supposed to stop criminals from hurting others, even if it meant that people hated them. Time would allow them to recover. And maybe someday, people would even look at thing from the perspective of a confused, horrified, yet well intentioned sixteen-year-old who was just trying to do the right thing.

And maybe he would already condemn The First Generation to the pages of infamy. But he couldn't live with himself if he let someone end up seriously hurt because he refused to act now. If the world had more Heroes, more people who could teach and guide him… Maybe things would be different.

But they weren't.

"…Alien Queen!" He yelled, over the loud sound of the air chopping around them. He clasped his hand firmly onto her shoulder, getting her attention over the rotor. "I need a distraction – Something, anything! I need to get in close to that Nomu!"

Her expression was covered up by her mask and the goggles over her eyes, but she responded positively with a nod. Izuku had expected her to launch some kind of Acid attack at range. Given the heavy winds, it wouldn't have been perfect, but it would have been something.

Instead, she ran to the entrance that both of them had come through, and hit the door with the side of her fist, as hard as she could.

A signal.

"Freezerburn, now!"

Immediately after, Todoroki, hood and mask up, charged straight out of the entrance way and onto the building. Izuku was stunned – How hadn't he seen Todoroki's arrival – And how hadn't Shigaraki or Dabi, for that matter?

Had he kept low, using the Nomu as a shield from their line of sight, and approached Mina and let her know he was here, and then snuck back? It was about the only thing that made any sense – He would have heard any vocal cues, or anything otherwise, as would Shigaraki.

Mina was the only one who could have looked without looking – Her ski goggles keeping her line of sight hidden. She could be looking in the corner of her eye, while appearing to look straight forward.

The sudden arrival of another opponent seemed to surprise Shigaraki out of his arrogant posturing, and he seemed to realize that, outnumbered, against Quirks he didn't know or understand quite yet, they were at a disadvantage. His fingers clawed themselves, and he tried to yell, "Nomu! Get though -"

Slamming his left hand against the floor, and activating the ice part of his Quirk with his right foot, Todoroki generated a sudden, immense amount of ice, straight around the Nomu, and blocking off both Shigaraki and Dabi from their Nomu. It was borderline instant, and by slamming his left hand onto the Ice's path as a faux, Todoroki had hidden the half-and-half nature of his Quirk, all at once.

Giving Izuku the chance to get in close, to do what he needed to do. He acted immediately.

As he moved towards the Nomu, it moved, and let out a roar. For a moment, Izuku hesitated, before he steeled himself.

Braindead. It was braindead. It wasn't exactly alive, nor was it dead.

That was what he had to keep telling himself. And even if it wasn't brain-dead – It would still kill any number of people Shigaraki told it to.

He couldn't risk it.

As One For All surged throughout his veins, he reached for his utility belt, and drew his knife.

It was instant, to the eyes of outsiders. Quick and rapid, and barely any time for anyone to react to it before it was done. The knife made its way immediately into the exposed brain. Izuku had steeled himself, and even when the knife was in, he held onto the grip as firmly as he could. His eyes were shut. There wasn't even a roar from the Nomu.

Just silence. That was probably the most horrifying thing about it. There wasn't even a squeak from it anymore.

Just silence as it fell forward and slumped onto the ground with a crashing thud.

It hadn't been alive. Not really.

But that didn't make it any easier.

* * *

 **Bit of a darker chapter, even for First Generation, but one that I think is important to the story, especially with some of the upcoming ideas ill be working with.**

 **The idea of a Nomu being alive or dead really does strike me as one that comes down to interpretation. If it's braindead, I don't know how accurately we can say something is alive, so to me, it's already dead, but I intend to portray Izuku as being somewhat more in the middle about it than I am.**

 **Shigaraki is an interesting character to write in this one too. He's hard to keep in character – The basic idea is that you should think of him as Magneto – But utterly insane, and borderline genocidal. That's the best way I can describe him.**

 **Now, I know it's rare for me to promote my Pat Reon, outside of saying that it exists, but as I said in Awkward Energy, I don't promote it since I just like having it as a tip jar, but, bottom line – Since I'm moving out of uni accommodation and into a new flat, into a place which is nice and also won't get me stabbed at night, but is also pretty expensive, I'm kind of stuck here. I don't normally ask for donations, but if you guys could help me gather up some spare cash for food so I don't starve when I move in, I cannot tell you how much it would mean to me – Obviously I'm not trying to push people towards donating. Everyone has their own different circumstances, and if you can't, that's more than okay, but it would mean a lot to me. Absolutely anything and everything is appreciated – But again, if you can't, I just hope you enjoy my works.**

 **You also could follow me on Tumblr – I'm fairly active on there, and I'm going to be doing some promotional work for my Pat reon and also maybe a Ko – fi if that's more accessible and doable for one donations. Basically, that's where you want to be if you need info one whats going on with me right now. – Life's been pretty tricky lately, and I'm going to explain a bit of it there. It's at QuirkQuartz, same as everywhere else.**

 **Regardless – Above all, as always, I hope you enjoy my work, and will continue to enjoy it. I will continue to get my writing and work out as often as I can even in this time – I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I will see you next time – Where we're going to start seeing Kirishima making his move.**


	23. Orphanage, Secrets, Izuku Midoriya

_The Nomu wasn't alive._

 _Nor had it been alive for a long time. In a sense, it wasn't even human anymore. It had the figure, and the shape, but it had been mutated and mutilated into something that wasn't even remotely Human anymore. Standards of what was and wasn't Human in the current age tended to be strict and discriminatory, at least unofficially. Much of the public couldn't bring themselves to see the Quirked generation as anything other than mutated freaks of nature. Mistakes of evolution. But even by the standards of these superpower bestowing mutations, the alterations and genetic manipulation that surrounded the Nomu made it seem less – Or more – than Human._

 _It hadn't been alive for a while now. It was brain-dead, by Shigaraki's own admission. You couldn't kill something that was already terminally brain-dead, right? That was what Izuku had to remind himself of. And besides the point, something that barely classified as Human or Quirked due to how its very essence had been altered. If the baseline was Human… Nomu couldn't be classed as Human, could it? It was artificial life. Barely life at all._

 _At least, that was what he told himself. What he tried, so desperately, to believe._

 _He was born Quirkless, and now had a Quirk within himself. The lines were blurred between Quirked and Quirkless as it was by his mere existence. No matter how hard he tried to think otherwise to try and alleviate his guilt, he didn't accept the notion that the Nomu wasn't alive. He couldn't._

 _It was. Had been. Now, it wasn't._

 _He had felt the knife sink into his target's brain, and felt the squelches and the sinking of the blade run down the handle and into his body. It felt like he was stabbing into a particularly viscous pile of jelly. What stuck out at him the most about it was how easy it had been, how effortlessly the blade had sunk into his target. With One For All surging throughout his body, he hadn't even felt much resistance. It had been effortless. Simple._

 _Easy._

 _Quiet._

 _Roars ceased almost instantly, as did all the tension in the muscles. It was just gone. Terminated like the life he had just taken._

 _He looked at his hands. They were covered with blood, shaking, trembling._

 _He had killed something. Someone. No matter how it had come into this world, no matter what had happened to it, no matter who it was._

 _He had killed it._

 _What had he done?_

"Midori?"

Izuku felt a nudge against his arm, and felt his right eyelid slowly open up to look at the world around him. For a moment, he didn't remember where he was, who was around him, who he was and what words meant. It quickly all came back to him though.

"H-Huh? Where…"

"We're almost there. Thought you'd wanna be awake."

The train. He remembered now. They were on a train, headed for the other side of the city.

Sat next to him was Mina, and across from him, Todoroki. And to the side of Todoroki, Eri, the child they had been assigned to take to one of the orphanages for Quirked children too young to attend the established Yuuei school. Eri was to be taken there, to try to learn how to better control her powers, no doubt under the careful eye of researchers, along with those sympathetic to the Quirked.

He'd fallen asleep. Not all that surprising considering the events of last night, and how little rest he'd actually gotten that night. After all, compared to everyone else, he'd had the roughest time of it. He was still haunted by what he'd done. What had happened because of his choice.

The rest of the night had been a massive blur to him. The way he described it, he had just seen a merging of colours and movements, all occurring around him without any real sense or meaning. He had merely existed, his body moving purely instinctively, automatic due to all his training and practice. He remembered no conversations, words, or actions between him killing the Nomu, and returning to Yuuei, and being placed in his room, the familiar surroundings bringing cohesion and focus back into his mind.

Of everything after that, the most memorable thing was him putting his costume back in his wardrobe. That was about the same time he began to start remembering things as they happened again.

Everyone had gotten back safely, which was the important thing. However, the same could be said about Shigaraki's group. None of them had been apprehended either, according to Katsuki and Todoroki, all of them quickly making their way back through the same portal that had brought them there in the first place. The only difference – The First Generation had been seen ending a life on live news.

The green-eyed boy hadn't gotten much sleep after that. He'd spent the majority of the night staring at the ceiling, a million questions running through his head, and the memories of what he did remember about the night replaying for him, over and over again. Pushing the feeling of sickness in his stomach to the front of just about everything. It made him feel ill but unwilling to seek assistance. This wasn't something that medicine would be able to help with.

Izuku glanced towards Eri. The child couldn't be more than five or six years old, and the trauma she had endured at such a young age showed clearly. The fact that he had managed to lead a mission that had inadvertently saved her from that sort of hell was one that Izuku managed to find a bit of solace in, even if they had needed to trap her in an icy prison to do it. He wondered what her reaction would be if she knew she was sat next to the people who had rescued her from that life.

Right now, it was probably going to be fear.

In the corner of his eye, he saw someone in a business suit reading a paper. On the front page was the story of what he'd done. The Nomu dead, and the Quirked facing off against one another. The title, 'The First Generation: True Colours?' as predicted. He tried not to let it bother him – He had acted as was necessary.

He regretted it – He regretted it with every cell in his body, but he didn't have a choice. Not if he wanted to stop it from hurting people.

There was no way he could guess what it would be like for Eri in this situation – Her saviors just a few days later being called killers by every news outlet available. She had to be confused. Probably afraid.

Hell, three total strangers were taking her to an orphanage for Quirked children whom weren't wanted by society. She was probably chronically depressed on top of everything else.

The worst part was that there wasn't anything that he could do about this situation either. This was one where his civilian self was on the front, and was powerless to do anything about it.

"Anyone else think it's kinda weird," Mina questioned, "That an orphanage for kids with Quirks and a high school for teenagers with Quirks are on complete opposite sides of the city?"

Izuku blinked and looked at his friend, feeling himself being pulled back into reality. Mina had a point – It was a bizarre choice, especially since the government stance on Quirks was mostly to keep them as contained as possible. It didn't fit into the rest of the system. Especially if those kids were then supposed to go to Yuuei anyway. It seemed like an arbitrary way of splitting people up.

"Is that really a topic for present company?" Todoroki questioned, raising an eyebrow and gesturing towards Eri by moving his eyes towards her. She didn't look affected. In fact, she was mostly looking down at the floor beneath her. It wasn't fully clear if she was even tuned into what the three teenagers around her were saying.

"I'm just sayin'…" Mina muttered, but she conceded the point. She looked towards Izuku, concern showing in her black eyes. "Hey, you okay?"

"I'm…" How was he supposed to answer that? He didn't really know how he was doing. Right now, he didn't feel much of anything at all. He was numb to a lot of things. Nearly everything, emotionally speaking at least.

He couldn't answer with any response without it being a lie. All he wanted right now was to just go home. To lay in bed, wrap himself up in covers and just… From there, he didn't know.

Mina seemed to understand. She didn't push him, or try to coax an answer out of him. All she offered was a sympathetic hand on the shoulder.

Contact Izuku needed more than anything right now.

" _We are now arriving at the Kita Ward, Kimyona district."_ The trains intercom announced. Their stop.

The train came to a stop a few moments later, and the people in the carriage began to disembark. In their Yuuei uniforms, the three students stood out like sore thumbs, so they decided to wait until the carriage was mostly clear of leavers before they got up. The glares and odd looks of hate and fear were enough to make the Quirked students uneasy, unwelcome, as they always were throughout the country.

Especially today, with the news of The First Generation going out and killing people.

Comments could be heard as the few that walked past them made their way by. Some quieter than others.

"Freaks."

"You come to cause more trouble here?"

"Go back to your school and leave us alone."

Nothing that they hadn't heard before, but it was just as unpleasant al the same. Funnily enough though, none of them tried to start anything. Even before the Nomu incident, people would rarely pick fights with Quirked in crowded places like this. Now there was even more incentive to stay away from them. To hate them.

At least there wasn't that much risk of them being attacked on the streets. That was one upside, Izuku forced himself to think.

* * *

It was a golden opportunity, and one Kirishima had been waiting for.

Midoriya, Ashido and Todoroki were all out, apparently taking some orphan kid to a facility on the other side of the city, no doubt run by investigators and civil workers. They were going to be gone for the majority of the day. And Bakugou and Uraraka were on another set of errands for the Headmaster.

The cops had been and gone. They'd searched the place and found nothing to connect the school to any of the Vigilante going's on, and been especially vicious towards the students while doing it. To be expected of the Quirkless.

But now they were gone.

So, the time to strike was now.

None of Midoriya's entourage were here. No one was going to stop them.

A smirk revealed his sharp teeth to his group. "This is going to be the best chance we've got at finding some answers." He stated. "They're not here, they can't stop us, and by the time they get back, we'll be able to expose the basters for what they really are."

Of the rest of his group of five, only Mineta and Monoma seemed to be as enthused about the idea as Kirishima was. Not that it was all that surprising, since they'd been as starchily adamant about their anti-Quirkless sympathizer stances as Kirishima had been from the word go. Yaoyorozu was on board, though she still didn't know what Kirishima was about to suggest. The same could be said about their Electrification Quirk user. Kaminari didn't seem to fully be for or against the idea right now, waiting on their ringleader to explain exactly what they were supposed to do with this situation.

Of the five of them there, the most reluctant was Jirou, without question. She was still on the fence about the entire idea, only taking part because Yaoyorozu had asked her to. Kirishima felt that she would be useful if they wanted to do this without knocking a door or two in and alerting everyone in the building as to what they were doing. But it made her being on the fence that more worrying, even if Yaoyorozu claimed that she could convince her to do whatever it was that they needed.

"So, what exactly do you have in mind?" Kaminari asked, an eyebrow raised up as he folded his arms.

Another smirk. "We bust in."

"Bust in?"

"To their rooms." He said it like it was the simplest thing in the world, even though what he was describing was simply a crime. "We look around and find something that tells us what they're up to. Catch the bastards out in their lies."

"You do know that breaking and entering is illegal, right?" Jirou questioned the Hardening Quirk user with a deadpanned expression and tone. "Assuming we get caught, we're going to have a lot more to worry about than some Quirkless guy sharing our dorms with us – Besides, how the hell are we supposed to not get caught once we've busted the locks?"

"Your Earphone Jacks and Yaoyorozu's Creation Quirk." Kirishima answered. "Your jacks are probably the quietest thing we've got. You could blow up a lock without causing too much sound, so we can look inside. Yaoyorozu then creates a new lock, and it'll be like we weren't ever there in the first place."

"It wouldn't take much to do." Yaoyorozu nodded. "I'd just need the exact measurements of whatever I'm making."

"And what if you're wrong and there's nothing in there?"

"Then the new locks will mean no one will ever know. And if I'm right, well, we won't need to worry about replacing the locks. They'll have other things to worry about."

"Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now." Monoma looked over his shoulder and gave Jirou a look that ranged between disgust and disbelief. "You're here and you agreed to help, and now that we're about to start you're starting to back out?"

Jirou growled. "Look, I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything, but I'm questioning if there's a smarter way to go about this?"

"If you've got one, trust me," Kirishima stated, his hands shoveling into his pockets, "I'd love to hear it."

"What… What about using my jacks to listen to them through the walls? Or have Momo make some bugs or something to pick up audio?"

"If the former, then they'd ask why there are a bunch of ear-jack shaped holes in the walls outside their room. If the latter, we'd still need to get inside the rooms."

"Besides," Monoma commented, "If they were smart, they wouldn't talk about it out loud in case someone overheard them."

"I'm with Kirishima." Mineta stated. "If we're gonna find anything, it'll be in their rooms."

"Kyouka." The Earphone Jack girl's girlfriend looked at her with an expression that combined softness and concern, with determination and inquiry. "Be honest… If there's even a chance that they're planning something, isn't it smarter to check it out, just to be sure?"

She didn't agree with it at all if she were perfectly honest. She found it unnecessary, and wasn't even sure how far that she agreed with the assumption that Midoriya was some sort of Quirkless mastermind. It all seemed like paranoia of the nth degree, paranoia that even Momo had fallen into. She couldn't deny the logic that both of them used though. The risk of him being some kind of spy was one she did at least feel was worth considering, especially since his story didn't seem to check out.

But was this really the way to figure that out? Committing crimes to out crimes didn't sit well with her. She'd suffered just as much as anyone else in the room at the hands of the Quirkless, but all she wanted, more than anything, was a peaceful life.

This didn't contribute to it. But a plot to uncover the weaknesses of all the Quirked students at Yuuei…

That wouldn't contribute to a quite life either.

It was with a reluctant sigh that she nodded in acceptance with the plan, in spite of her own reservations about it.

She just hoped that Momo and Kirishima were right.

* * *

Somehow, Izuku got the feeling that this place had seen a surge of anti-Quirked sentiment since last night.

Graffiti, fresh, was scattered all over the nearby neighbourhood and walls that lead down towards the orphanage, almost like they were warning signs, or the markings of territory, designated by the dominant party. The closer that they got to the orphanage, the more damaged and prolific the vandalism and graffiti got. Charming slurs and words of oppression scrawled onto walls, bins kicked over, and even the windshields of some cars shattered to oblivion.

It was to be expected. When The First Generation entered Izuku's mind, he knew reactions would be like this somewhere. But never had he thought them this vicious, and this soon, to a place children resided - Kids who weren't even ten yet… It was one thing to attack a school where teenagers resided. There was, at least, some logic to be had there. Teenagers could be angry, irrational, slaves to hormones and pheromones that affected their perception, and unstable emotions that were only enhanced by their stature in society.

But it was another thing entirely to destroy the area around an orphanage for people who hadn't even made it past their first decade. Kids who hadn't even fully understood the situation around the world. Kids who had done nothing wrong at all.

Izuku shuddered. He couldn't help but feel responsible for what was in front of him. He wondered if things had been like this twenty-four hours ago. He wondered if he could have stopped this.

If he was the cause.

"Sheesh…" Was all Mina had to say.

Whoever had done this had gone the full nine yards. Normally in this sort of incident, the victims home would be the only one that was targeted. But the surrounding area had been too in this case. Like a radius around the orphanage that would remind them that they weren't welcome.

Eri didn't seem all too affected by what was around her. Which she kept her focus on the ground below her, occasionally her red eyes would look up to survey her surroundings, but she never reacted much to them. What she had grown up in was worse, or made this look like it was nothing, even though it haunted her guides.

Following the trail, it didn't take them long to find what was supposed to be the orphanage. In a sense, they were lucky – All the unattractive graffiti and thrashings of the streets made it uncomfortable for even those who were Quirkless to venture near the orphanage, and the four of them were left nearly completely alone. Only one or two people seemed to be on the same paths as them, and aside from the looks one would expect when out in a Yuuei uniform, no confrontation was made. The building was fairly secluded from the rest of the district, being left on the edge and away from the other inhabited areas somewhat. It was like Yuuei, only smaller.

That was the understatement of the century.

Run down and overcrowded – These things were evident just by looking at the building. Certainly, if it were a house for a family of four, it would be considered enormous. But a family of four, and a home for Quirked children were two very different things. Perhaps at the start of the epidemic of superpowers, the place had been built with the belief that Quirks were exceedingly rare and would be contained within a few years. Now, with priority shifting towards control and research, rather than relocation, this place was left in the wayside.

Paint was peeling off of the fences, blue, red, black and pink spray paint used at random against the original coating of white. Broken boards, and uncut grass, littered with garbage and toys for kids that were just left outside to rust. Swings and a jungle gym left abandoned. In fact, the whole building itself looked abandoned.

And no children either. The place was eerily silent for what was supposed to be an orphanarium.

"…It was never this bad before."

It took Izuku a moment to remember that Todoroki had supposedly spent a few years here before leaving. All his focus had been on himself, and on Eri today. Until now, he hadn't even considered how this would all be affecting Todoroki. When he looked at his friend, he saw an expression on him that he couldn't quite place. Not nostalgia, or guilt, or anything else that implied fond memories of such a location. Disbelief was probably the best way to describe it. Shock.

Not remorse. This place had too many bad memories for remorse. Maybe…

…Izuku couldn't guess.

"I mean…. It wasn't great…" Todoroki carried on, his expression only etching itself harder against his face. "…It wasn't this bad before though. When I left, people would be outside, all the time, even in the wind and in the rain. The older kids would sometimes stay indoors more… But a lot of us did go outside… If only because there wasn't anything else to do."

"…Come on." Izuku made himself speak, and put one foot in front of another, towards the front door. Standing still wasn't going to solve any of the issues that this place had to solve. All they could do was do what they had come here to do, and then be on their way as soon as possible.

Mina followed him, holding Eri's hand and leading her along as she had been since they left the station. Todoroki took a few seconds longer, but he followed soon after. Izuku waited until the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user had joined them, before placing three heavy knocks against the front door.

For a moment, nothing.

"You think anyone's home?" Mina asked, raising an eyebrow. "I dunno, maybe they moved or something."

"Moved without telling us where we're supposed to drop her off?" Todoroki questioned, pointing towards Eri lazily with his left index finger.

"Hey, I dunno. It doesn't really look like – "

" – Be right there!"

Sudden clattering and the rapid sound of footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door, like someone had just tripped over and was scrambling back onto their feet again. The voice was recognizable to Todoroki, whom found himself blinking harder. He hadn't heard it in a long time.

The door handle fumbled its way open and standing on the other side of the now open frame, was Fuyumi Todoroki. Todoroki's older sister.

"I'm sorry, I – " Fuyumi began to speak before she had barely gotten the door all the way open. When she laid eyes on Todoroki, her voice just stopped, dead in its tracks.

And she just stared at her younger brother. And he looked back.

"…S-Shoto?" Her surprise was evident. Stunned was probably the most appropriate way of describing her in that moment.

"…Hi, Fuyumi." Todoroki responded calmly, though he would admit only in his head that he was a bit overwhelmed himself. How many years had it been since he'd seen his sister? Ten? Twelve? Eight? He genuinely didn't know. The dates had all blurred together and become virtually indistinguishable from one another during his time at the orphanage. He couldn't even be fully certain how long it had been.

His sister had certainly changed over the years, aside from just growing in height and maturing physically. She now carried a series of red streaks within her otherwise white hair, which he didn't recall her having before. In addition, she now wore glasses, which made her seem a lot older than she actually was. She looked tired too. Exhausted, like she'd been up for nights in a row, which, in all likelihood, she had been.

"They… They said I should be expecting Yuuei students to come along with a new child… I didn't think they'd send you though."

"I'm here by choice. Headmaster Toshinori told me you were working here."

"…So, you must be Eri." Fuyumi said, kneeling down to be around the same height as Eri was. Unsurprisingly, she didn't say anything, or even look up aside from a quick glance. It looked like something the older sibling was used to seeing, since she handled it with such resignation and eventlessness. She stood back up and spoke to everyone, standing out of the way of the frame. "U-Um, come on in, all of you. I'll make some tea for us. Yuu would love to meet you all."

One by one, each of the four of them took steps into the building. Within moments, they saw lines of doors on both sides of the corridor. Each door had a name-tag attached to it. Children's rooms. Even the bottom floor had been converted into lodgings for the homeless Quirked kids, Fuyumi having clearly done her best to fit in as many as she could. The corridor itself was also a mess, cluttered with children's toys, paper, drawings, and everything else one would expect when dealing with children.

Still, the building was absolutely silent, and there was something utterly haunting about that.

"…It's quiet for an orphanage." Todoroki commented as he stepped foot inside.

"They're all scared." Fuyumi answered. "We… Don't get a lot of visitors. And after last night…"

A verbal punch to the gut to Izuku. His theories, and his fear, had been confirmed.

"Last night?" He asked, trying not to sound too guilty.

As he asked, the group found themselves entering a small, fairly cramped kitchen area. There was enough space for a few people, a sofa, and a table. Not enough for an entire orphanage's worth full of children, but enough for several people to comfortably stay in.

"Uh, make yourself at home." Fuyumi offered, making a gesture for her four new guests to sit at the sofa while she made her way towards the kitchen counter, and filled up a kettle with water.

The four of them sat down, Todoroki sat in-between Mina and Izuku. Eri was picked up by Mina, and sat on her lap, since the three of them took up just about all the space. Anyone who paid any attention to her body language and the way she spoke could tell that she was clearly out of her comfort zone. Not that she wasn't happy to see her brother.

She just had no idea what to say to him. Given the history of what had happened to him, what could she say to him? Where did they even start?

Did they start with the girl? It kind of felt rude to not at least acknowledge her brother now that he was here. But at the same time, it also felt rude to not deal with the child and figure out what was going to happen with her first.

"I uh… I suppose Shoto's told you about me." Fuyumi awkwardly stated. She couldn't even really introduce herself, since Todoroki would have taken care of that anyway. Still, she decided to go down that route, if only to break the ice. "Still, I um… I'm Fuyumi Todoroki. Shoto's sister."

"Uh, Mina Ashido." Mina introduced herself first, when she saw that Izuku wasn't going to. "And uh… This is Izuku Midoriya. And this is Eri."

Fuyumi nodded, and offered them a polite smile. "Um, like I was saying. The news was doing a live coverage of The First Generation when that one guy – Maverick or something – stabbed that other guy."

Izuku did his best not to express or emote in any way.

"I watched it live." Fuyumi continued. "Saw the whole thing… Was kind of… Horrifying, to be honest. Anyway, a lot of people were watching it at the time, and I guess it stirred up some bad feelings. About an hour later, I hear someone kicking over something in the streets and spray-paining everything nearby. I guess since this is the highest localization of Quirk using individuals around this place."

"I'm sorry." Todoroki's response was immediate, and genuine. "That you had to go through all that. It must've been scary."

"I'm used to it to be honest." The older sibling said with a sigh. "I have to repaint the fence usually once a week. I'm just lucky one of the kids here has a Quirk that lets them generate paint."

"I've heard that line way too often." Mina muttered. She'd heard people being used to the abuse they received so much that she could practically sense when it was coming at this point.

"Natsuo comes along every so often." Fuyumi then said. "He comes and brings supplies and spends time with the kids here."

"…How many?"

Mina and Todoroki both glanced towards the uncharacteristically quiet Izuku. He was never an intensely social person, but in scenarios like this, he would normally be asking all sorts of questions, and leading the conversation with gusto. Now, he just seemed to be doing the bare minimum to contribute.

There wasn't any doubt that yesterday was still bothering him intensely. He just couldn't say it right now.

"Fifty-four." Fuyumi answered.

"You have fifty-four kids in a building this size?!" Mina felt her eyes bulge.

The building, to be as frank as possible, was not designed to be able to hold that many people. It only had a few floors, and the rooms would not be plentiful, or suited enough to house so many kids. Cramped would be the understatement of the century. It was practically overflowing.

"We… We managed to split up a few of the rooms upstairs when there were other workers here. Some rooms have two or three kids bunking together, and some have to find space in the corridors and make do with sleeping bags."

Mina felt her hold on Eri tighten. Izuku looked towards the young child again as well. _This_ was where they were supposed to leave her? In a place that could barely support its own numbers?

"It's… It's hard on them." Fuyumi looked towards the ground herself, and interlocked her fingers. "I've done everything that I can to try and make things easier on them, but – "

"Yumi!"

From how it sounded, and the sudden abbreviation of Fuyumi's name, Izuku found himself suspecting that one of the many children that resided in this place – albeit one of the braver ones who wasn't afraid anymore – was calling out for the closest thing that they had to a mother.

Instead, about three seconds later, the figure of a half named, blonde haired adult woman stood in the doorway, looking like she'd just been thrown out of a tumble dryer. "Yumi, we're out of – " When she realized that there were four complete strangers in the building with them, and that she looked like she had just gotten out of bed – Which she probably had – she paused, and looked blankly at them.

And Fuyumi went bright red.

"….Uh, hi." She blinked again, though compared to Fuyumi, she seemed far more stable, and less awkward, not too bothered by the fact they saw her like this. "Didn't realize we had company."

"U-Um…" Fuyumi looked far more embarrassed, even though she wasn't the one who walked in the room half naked. Though it was fairly obvious why. "U-Uh, S-Shoto, everyone, this is my girlfriend, Yuu."

"Hey, wait a second, Shoto? Your brother Shoto?" The woman, Yuu, shot her attention towards the heterochromic teenager, like she had just laid her eyes on the stuff of mythos.

"That's right."

Introductions and an apparently invested interested Yuu shook Todoroki's hand repeatedly. Izuku took note of it, but didn't pay it much attention. He couldn't bring himself to. His ability to focus on things happening in the present was muddied somewhat by the events of the previous night. And now, now he had found himself a lot more focused on the situation at this orphanage.

He hadn't expected a five-star luxury dwelling, but he had hoped for… Something more than this. More than a building where the unwanted were forced into and were lucky if they even had a mattress to sleep in, and were constantly afraid of more vandalism attempts. Especially after the result of The First Generation's fight from last night. And now, there were other issues that Izuku felt had to be asked.

Could they even get enough food to feed the kids here? Would anyone be willing to sell food to someone who looked after Quirked children? And even if they could, where would they get the money to pay for all of that? Somehow Izuku found himself with a depressing certainty that if he saw any of the kids here, they'd look half starved. This place wasn't built to look after so many kids.

No matter what the official reports were. No matter what they claimed. No matter…. What anyone or any report said about this place.

This was no way to live. No way at all.

How could they leave Eri here?

The girl had suffered enough. Leaving her here just felt like adding insult to injury. Sure, it would be better than the life that she had lived until this point, but certainly not by much at all. It wasn't right. And he couldn't.

He wouldn't.

There was no way in hell he was willing to leave the young girl there. He refused to, and the police, government, or whoever wanted to argue with him could come right on down and arrest him as much as they liked as far as he was concerned. They could go right on ahead – But they weren't going to force him to abandon Eri here.

And there was more too.

He wouldn't let this go on.

These sorts of conditions, this way of being forced to live…. Izuku didn't know how anyone managed it. He didn't know how long Todoroki's brother and her girlfriend stayed here, or why. Were they Quirked, or did they just have sympathy? Who were the other workers, and when had they left? It would have been so easy for them to leave right alongside them… But they were still here. Doing whatever they could.

And yet, here they were. Stuck here. He could swear that he felt their frustration in the very air that he inhaled. Their own inability to do anything, to help the kids they were stuck here trying to help. Their own inability to even provide them with a reasonable place to stay…

…An idea hit Izuku's head, reminding him of what The First Generation had originally set out to do in the first place.

When the idea of Heroism had entered his head, he had accepted then and there that there were certain things that Izuku Midoriya wasn't going to be able to do, that Maverick could. Maverick could use his Quirk, could leap into the city, fight, and rescue people. Maverick could be the Hero that Izuku never could be.

But Izuku Midoriya could also be the bastion of assistance that Maverick would never be able to be.

There were things that Izuku Midoriya could do that Maverick wouldn't be able to do. Izuku Midoriya couldn't fight the Quirked who lost their control and their way.

What he could do was help these struggling people find a new home.

* * *

The floor that Midoriya resided on was filled with other members of his entourage, none of which were here today. It meant that, if they were quiet, no one would ever even know that the six of them had gone to their corridor at all. They didn't even really have to sneak into the place. They just sort of walked in without issue or cause for suspicion.

Kirishima hadn't been on this particular floor before, so he wasn't sure which room belonged to which person. Honestly, he was prepared to just kick each door in and search room to room until he found whichever one was Midoriya's.

Luckily for the group though, his door has a sign on it.

More accurately, every single door had a sign on it. Their names, written in a colour that corresponded with each person. Green for Midoriya, Pink for Ashido, and orange for Bakugou, Bakugou's name being written in such a way that it looked like every letter was exploding. There weren't any prizes for guessing who had decided to hang up name-tags on everyone's doors.

Still. It made their job much, much easier.

Everyone surrounded the door, independently taking in short breaths and collecting themselves. Even if it was justified, they were all aware of the full extent of what they were doing, and what could happen if they got found out without any evidence to support what they'd done.

Well, they didn't exactly know what would happen if they got caught. But that made the prospect even more horrifying.

But this was something that they needed to do. Kirishima was beyond certain of that. Midoriya had been under the same roof as them for months now, and who knew what he'd been up to since then. After everything that he had been through, what his dormmates had been through themselves…

There was no way that they could turn their backs if it meant that they could stop more things like this from happening to them again. There was just no way in hell.

"Jirou." He stated. He didn't need to give an order of any sort. She knew what she had to do just from hearing her name spoken alone.

The Earphone Jack Quirk user looked at her girlfriend, like she was looking for confirmation from her to go ahead. Yaoyorozu gave it in the form of a nod, affirming her stance, almost to Jirou's disappointment. Still, she complied, and her right earlobe began to extend, and plugged itself into the handle to Midoriya's room.

A second later, the vibrations from Jirou's Quirk shattered it into pieces, leaving the room available for all to enter.

Kirishima took the first step – He was the leader, and that made this his responsibility. If something went wrong, he wanted to be the one to have his hands dirty, and this was his way of showing that. Following him was Monoma, then Yaoyorozu, whilst Kaminari and Jirou both remained outside, just in case someone came and started to ask questions.

First glance – It was an ordinary room.

Midoriya had a fondness for superhero comics and manga, but that aside, that seemed to be about it. He had his work all neatly stacked up, everything in order. His room was tidy too, and he wasn't all that much for decoration. His posters seemed to be enough for him. Under the bed, he had weight-training equipment. Dumbbells and grip boosters, average stuff for anyone who had an investment in refining their body. But that was it.

He didn't leave a whole lot just laying around for anyone to find. He was either just a neat freak, or they were going to have to start shifting through his wardrobe and desk to find things.

"Yaoyorozu." The Hardening Quirk user stated. "You check his desk. I'll check the wardrobe."

"Got it."

Kirishima didn't really expect to find anything of note in a wardrobe, but you never knew with this sort of thing. If Midoriya was smart in any way, the chances were, he'd hide his things in the less obvious places that one would suspect. Maybe he hid things in the jackets he kept in there?

Really, it was the only guess he had.

He reached for the wardrobe handle.

"Kirishima? You might want to look at this."

Kirishima turned around, and saw the Creation Quirk user, with a notebook in her hands. On the front; Quirk Analysis, book number seventeen.

Page by page, and word by word, Kirishima took in everything that Midoriya had written. Details on Kaminari's Quirk, and what his limits were, and what happened when he short-circuited himself. What looked like theoretical analysis of Koda's abilities, and theorized ways on how to counter its effects. A look at the applications of a power like Yaoyorozu's, and what it could be useful for.

Guesses at the durability of Kirishima's own Hardening.

Details. Speculation. Analysis. Weaknesses, and uses. Every page even had a sketch of the user, and notes about their mutations, if any applied. What Kirishima had in his hands was a self-made notebook about the properties of everyone that he knew. He was reading about what they could do. Their limits.

And how they could be defeated.

He smirked.

"We've got the fucker."

* * *

 **So this went on hiatus for a bit – But I came at it with a vengeance lately and got this done in three days – and I'm super happy with the result of this! I've done a bit of reworking with FG, and I think the story I'm about to tell is going to be far, FAR superior to the story I originally planned to tell. I've missed working on this one and I've had a lot of fun with this chapter.**

 **Fuyumi and Yuu (AKA, MT Lady) is an idea I got from my buddy DominoMags. They just threw it out at one point and I decided "Shit this could be fun" so I'm giving it a test run in FG. It didn't get a big look in now, but I'm going to be going over it in a bit more detail in upcoming chapters, so stick around for that.**

 **So, as I mention – If you guys want to support me and the work that I do, I run a Pat Reon page, and now have a Ko – Fi page as well, both under the name of QuirkQuartz – Support is** _ **highly**_ **appreciated, but by no means is it required. You can also follow me on Tumblr under the same name for updates and the ability to talk to me there.**

 **I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter, and ill see you in the next chapter of whatever I decide to make next – See you guys!**


	24. Master Plan

Once again, the seating on the train back into the main city was indicative of the treatment of the Quirked; 'Normal' people huddled away from the 'Freak' Yuuei students as much as they could, sending sneers and nasty looks their way as they walked by or sat down. They were about as welcome as a grease fire in a hospital, and probably provoked the same emotional response from the people around them as such.

Almost distressingly, Izuku had found that he'd gotten used to the looks, and somehow struggled to remember a time where he wasn't looked at like that. He knew that there were memories locked somewhere in the recesses of his mind – He wasn't born with a Quirk, he'd merely inherited one. He was fully aware that he was just struggling to remember an earlier point in his life, that was the only issue here. But somehow, those glares felt like a more permanent part of his life than ever before.

The plan that he had in his head, he knew, could cause those looks to go one of two ways; Inspiration, or unapologetic abhorrence.

For the first time in a while, Izuku wasn't thinking about what the Quirkless thought. In fact, he found that he couldn't care much about what they thought in this particular situation. He'd spent most of his life trying to sway the opinions of those who were Quirkless that they with powers weren't inherently dangerous, by bending over backwards to try to suit them. And he'd only had some success, and things just got more and more dangerous. He efforts ended up with him having blood on his hands.

Blood that wasn't going to wash off.

So right about now, he couldn't care less. About what the Quirkless thought about what his next move was, about the backlash he would end up getting, or what his punishment would be.

Doing nothing would be far, far worse, and that would be something that weighed on his consciousness for the rest of his life.

"Midoriya… Do you honestly expect the Headmaster to go along with this?"

Izuku blinked a couple of times, trying to send the message that way instead of having to actually talk. It was something that he hadn't given much thought to when he made his suggestion to Fuyumi and Takeyama. He knew that it was probably going to stir up some controversy in some media outlets, and it was probably going to get eyes on Yuuei once again.

Being Heroes was one thing. That was a danger, but it was primarily to themselves. If they were caught, Yuuei would be able to disavow them, claim total ignorance on what they were doing, and allow what laughably counted as justice to carry out in order to protect the other students. It was a mentality Izuku agreed with, to an extent. He himself would never let anyone face the brunt of a punishment like that, but the safety of those who had done no wrong in Yuuei were more important to him, and he was willing to make the sacrifice of being left on his own to ensure their safety.

But now, he had found himself in a situation where he was damning one group if he did nothing, and damning the other if he helped. The police had asked for their help, and declared Yuuei would be responsible if they failed. And he had disregarded that entirely. If he used numbers, and the fact that there were more students at Yuuei than in an orphanage, logic would dictate that he leaves the Quirked children there to fend for themselves. That the lives of the many were greater than the needs of the few.

It was logic that he threw to the wind though. Logic that he hated, and refused to abide by. He wouldn't reduce the value of a life to a number.

Not that he would blame Toshinori for feeling different. "To be perfectly honest, Todoroki…. I don't. At all." He had responsibilities, a duty to the students already in his care. And risking their safety was something he wasn't supposed to do.

Mina sighed. "Somehow, I'm not even surprised. This isn't exactly the most passive resistance… Thing you've suggested."

Were Eri not present, Izuku would have pointed out that the very concept of Heroes wasn't exactly passive.

"It's…. I know it's not exactly a… Logical course of action." He chose his words carefully, afraid that he was going to wind up upsetting his friends. He had almost made the choice entirely on his own, and only now realized he hadn't asked for their opinions. "I…. I'm sorry."

Both Mina and Todoroki looked at him, then to one another, and then back to him. "What're you sorry for?"

"I… Kind of made the call without asking what you guys thought." His hands joined together, fingers interlocking. "I… I didn't even think about what you guys would think."

"I don't think what we think is going to change your mind, is it?" Todoroki questioned, his voice as emotionless and difficult to read as always. "You're planning on going through with this even if we don't approve, aren't you?"

It made Izuku feel like his heart was sinking, because Todoroki was right on the money. And when he put it like that, it made him feel selfish, even reckless. But his heart was set, and he couldn't just do nothing about the situation. He couldn't just let it quietly die off and try to forget. They were supposed to be a team, all working off of one another to come up with a route that would benefit everyone, that they all agreed on… And yet, here he was.

Making these sorts of choices without even considering the input of what any of them might have to say. Any conflicting viewpoints, or considerations they had thought about, but he hadn't. It was like he had just decided that this was the best course of action, no matter what anyone else seemed to think.

There was this line in his head, that was leading him to a place that was better, brighter, happier – If only so very, very slightly. A place that was just, somehow, a little bit more comfortable. At the very least, he wanted to help those Quirked kids have a more comfortable place to stay.

And that line had led him down it's path, and he'd followed eagerly, to make that difference.

Unaware of what his friends felt.

"You're kidding, right?"

The black-haired boy blinked a few times, before he looked towards the pink skinned girl. He didn't know what he had expected to see. Annoyance. Resistance. Hurt.

He got neither – Instead, he just got a smile. A wide, wonderful smile, that he seemed to get so very, very few of from her. "I'm all for it, Midori. All the way."

"Y-You are?"

"You seen me?" Mina held up her hands, as if to call attention to her skin – Her very being. "If I was born just a few years later, I'd be in one of those places… And they don't look good. At all. The Head'll probably get angry with us… Who knows what'll happen."

Izuku gulped. "We might even get expelled."

"Well, at least we'll have a place to stay afterwards." She grinned. "You agree as well, right Todoroki?" She turned to him, with an eyebrow raised. "Your stoic act isn't really fooling anyone, y'know."

The dual-hair-coloured teenager looked at Mina, and then let out a sigh. "I'm concerned a lot more about the response than you seem to be…. But I do agree."

"So, what was with the whole resistance act?"

Todoroki paused for a moment, and seemed to glance away – It was noticeable, even if it was just momentarily. Todoroki had always been fairly up front and blunt about his opinions – when he didn't like something, he made no effort to hide it, and when he had concerns, he would voice them, no matter how tactless it might have seemed. While it sometimes made him difficult to hang out with, it was also useful. He would ask the questions that no one else seemed to want to ask.

To see him hesitate, even slightly like this…

The train came to a stop.

"Midoriya…" Todoroki turned, and looked at his friend.

And asked one simple question that shook him.

"Are you okay?"

* * *

A stack of seventeen of these books, all labelled and neatly organized had been pulled right out of Midoriya's room, and into the visible eyes of the entire 1A dorm. Detailed analysis of all manner of Quirks.

Of their Quirks. Drawings of them, and elaborate, extensive looks at their various powers, hypothesized weaknesses, and combat strategies. Notes of what the powers could be used for. Predictions on what those Quirks could do, given the proper training.

The discomfort it made everyone in the room feel was practically tangible, like a fog that was now hanging over each and every one of them. Once they had all been read and checked through, Kirishima had called for just about every person in the dorms to come and see what he had discovered. Some of them were gripped by a feeling of dread, while others found themselves almost feeling violated in a certain way. The notes were detailed and in depth, almost like Midoriya had reduced them to little more than research subjects. As if Yuuei wasn't bad enough in itself, now they lived with someone who was taking these sorts of notes about them?

What were they even supposed to feel right now? What were they to take away from this? Even those who had come to trust Midoriya, like Tsuyu, and Shoji, found themselves disturbed by what they were seeing. It made them feel like testing rats.

A Quirkless student taking notes on his classmates like they were parts of a science project.

Classmates who were sick of being treated like freaks of nature, and being reduced to nothing more than study.

"…I mean, you've got to admire how much work he's put into this."

"Yeah, at least _his spying notes are well organized,_ Hagakure." Kirishima flatly, and sarcastically responded, raising an eyebrow in her direction, more confused as to how she was even able to take things so lightly in the face of what she was seeing. "That makes me feel much better."

"It's not like this confirms anything."

While she couldn't deny the creepy implications behind them, and nor could she properly think of any just reason for why Midoriya would keep notes like this, Jirou couldn't fully convince herself that there was a sinister reason behind this. Granted, she spoke to Midoriya little, but she had watched him run off to fight against Quirkless bikers early on, and he had kept to himself, interacting with his group in a way that was undeniable to anyone who saw them. She had been distrustful of him, along with everyone else when he first came into their lives…

But now, she couldn't be so sure that the mistrust was well placed. After all, they were the ones who just broke into his room, unprovoked, so she couldn't exactly say she felt like much of a hero right about now.

"C'mon, Jirou." Kaminari said, holding his arms out as if to present the pile of notepads more. "Look at all of this stuff – What other reasons would he have for keeping this stuff?"

"He could just be interested in Quirks." It was the first thing that came into the Earphone Jack Quirk users head. "Not like he'd be the first Quirkless person to find them fascinating." It wasn't a particularly strong argument either. Almost sounded like she was making excuses for him.

"I… I don't know if I'd buy that." Sero looked hurt almost, like he'd been on the verge of finally letting his guard down and beginning to properly trust Midoriya, or at least believe that he wasn't some denizen here to cause trouble for them.

Ojiro picked up one of the notebooks, and flipped though it. "And if you remember his whole line about having a Quirk given to him… There aren't even any notes about this Quirk he says he has?"

"Yaoyorozu and I checked between them." Kirishima stated. "Nothing about any Quirk that can be passed on." That was a big red light on this whole thing. In a book apparently being used to research the Quirks, one would assume he at least would have made some kind of notes about his own power. Especially one that was so unique.

Doubly so when one remembered that it was apparently a hand-me-down from their headmaster. And there wasn't any mention of his power either. It had been an enormous revelation at the start of the year, but very few people had come to actually believe it. If it was a real power, and Midoriya had this supposed power… Then there should be notes. Right?

That line of logic at least made sense to the Hardening Quirk user, who was now just seeing more and more evidence to support his claims that the Quirkless teenager wasn't to be trusted.

More and more, things just made less and less sense the more the others looked at the notebooks.

"So… What's this all mean then?"

"Aside from him lying to us?" Kirishima looked own at the notes, his own profile page open. Notes and hypothesis that were disturbingly accurate to how his Quirk functioned, all from just learning about how his own ability worked? What was the purpose of these notes?

There were guesses. Things he could assume about the situation, about why a Quirkless student would ever enter a school that was filled with nothing but Quirked students. Especially with all the bullet point listed sub-paragraphs.

'Weaknesses. Applications. Benefits to society.'

It made him feel like he was being categorized. Like someone was trying to figure out where he would be the most useful to their Quirkless society.

Like he was being analysed. So people would know how to work him, and how to deal with him if he didn't comply.

"…It's profiling." He said, interrupting another conversation he hadn't been paying any attention to.

The others turned to him, waiting to see what he meant.

"Think about it. All of it has what use we could be to the Quirkless and their society. Our weaknesses – Ways to stop us if we don't do what we're told. Like a whip."

"What're you suggesting?" Jirou questioned.

"I'm suggesting this this Quirk he has doesn't even exist, and I'm suggesting that Midoriya was sent here to try and figure out as much about us as he could. So if the Quirkless decide that we're getting restless, or they decide they need some labourers, they can put us down."

Given the limited information that they had, and the general feeling of terror that those in the room felt at nearly every point in their entire lives, it didn't sound like it was an outlandish proposal. Many of them had feared this for years. Some sort of slavery or imprisonment, where their own powers ended up being used against them, and research and abuse was all that their lives would live up to.

Midoriya had been a mystery to many, and had seemed harmless. So what it that had been the reason he was sent into a place like this in the first place?

The idea of him being some sort of mole made a certain amount of sense. And was the easiest answer to accept.

Not to everyone though. "That's quite the assumption to make based on only a few notebooks, Kirishima." Iida pointed out. And he was right – It was barely anything at all. "I'm sure that if we merely speak to Midoriya – "

"I've had enough of talking!"

It marked the first time since the motorcycle incident that Kirishima had actually shouted at anyone. It caught Iida off guard without question, and made everyone else flinch and pause as they looked at him, and saw that the frustration and anger had finally come to boil at the surface.

Like everyone else, Kirishima was angry. Only he was finally at the point where he couldn't just keep it back anymore. Maybe it was because of how he discovered what he had, or because of his distrust and prejudice against the Quirkless. But his glare finally conveyed that he'd been waiting for long enough, and he wasn't going to just wait around anymore.

"I've had enough of listening to this whole notion that this guy can't be so bad – He's Quirkless! We all saw it! We all know it, and he's not shown us a single shred of evidence otherwise! Am I the only one who remembers what the Quirkless have been doing to us our entire fucking lives?!"

Silence. He wasn't alone in that. No one could forget any of the treatment that they had received. Only those who hadn't been the victim of it couldn't relate.

Yaoyorozu was one of them, though she was easily on Kirishima's side about it – She knew from everyone and the stories that they told about the horrors that came from the Quirkless. "Kyouka, think about it – Look at what we have here! There isn't even any mention about his power!"

"You don't even have any proof he's lying!" Jirou argued. "Why would he keep notes about his own power? He knows what he can do with it!"

"Because his power doesn't exist!" Kirishima responded.

"Just because you've never seen it!"

"And if he has one, then why won't he show it to us, huh? He could've stopped this entire debate from happening if he just showed us his damn supposed Quirk!"

"Kyouka, please – Kirishima has a lot of valid points. I don't want to fight over this – "

"I don't either – But I want nothing to do with this anymore."

Both Yaoyorozu and Kirishima felt their eyelids open up wider. Kaminari turned to look at Jirou with a mixture of surprise and absolute confusion. Even in the face of all this evidence, she didn't want to act on it?

It looked like the words had left the Earphone Jack Quirk users mouth before she could think to stop them, but they were out now. And it seemed to make her bite her tongue, and what next came out seemed to be difficult for her to say. But she spoke anyway.

"Everything is anecdotal at best. We broke into his room for crying out loud – and all we got for it are a bunch of notebooks that we don't even know the context of. And now what, you want to accuse him of being some sort of teenage spy?" She shook her head. "No. I can't. I won't. I don't want anything to do with this anymore. It's not right. I'm out."

Of the two, Yaoyorozu seemed the most shaken – She had come to rely on Jirou. She was her girlfriend, and to be faced with such a clear conflict between the two of them… "Kyouka, you can't be – "

"The only reason I even helped is because of you, Momo." Jirou said, with balled up fists, and tears threatening to form in her ducts. "Because I wanted to trust that you had more sense than to base all of this on something that we can't even prove without it being so flimsy, so… So…"

"I agree with Jirou." Iida spoke up again, standing next to the shorter girl, and a bit in front of her, as if to shield her from the persecuting group. "We have no reason to suspect Midoriya of anything. I will admit those notebooks are curious, but I refuse to accuse anyone because of them."

"I can't agree either." Tsuyu spoke next, making her voice heard for the first time, after having listened to both sides make their cases. There wasn't enough to support the idea that Midoriya was some sort of spy.

None of their points seemed to dissuade Kirishima though. "You're seriously going to back out, Jirou? After we planned to prove this bastards a liar?!"

"You're gonna fucking do what now?"

Heads turned. They had been discussing this for far, far longer than they realized. Long enough that any secrecy on what had been going on had just flow straight out the window.

There stood Bakugou and Uraraka, less than five meters away. The pair of them had been running their errands that they hadn't finished from the day before, and were back sooner than expected now. For how long they had been stood there, none of the gathered students were aware of. But it was obvious, from the expressions on their faces, that they had heard enough. And with their friend's notepads out on display, they had seen more than enough.

Horror on Uraraka's face, and unbridled fury on Bakugou's.

* * *

Are you okay?

There was a lot of things about such a simple question, such a casual question, that was now making Izuku's head spin. Like he was on some sort of Ferris wheel that was pushed up to ten times the normal speed, and refused to stop. The question just kept repeating itself, over and over, on a loop, and refusing to slow down.

The walk back to Yuuei had been a fairly uneventful, quiet one, without any conversation between the three students. The looks that they got from the passing Quirkless didn't even seem to register with them. They just bounced off, no effect whatsoever. There were probably a few comments tossed their way too, but none of the three of them paid any attention to them.

Honestly, Izuku wasn't sure if he'd be able to respond if either of his friends spoke to him again. His own thoughts would probably block them out without him even realizing it.

If he'd been asked that question a few days ago, his answer would have been immediate – Yes, he was okay. And at that point, he'd be asking Todoroki why he thought something was wrong. He'd be looking at his friend with an odd look, confused by the concern that he was placing on him. He'd be assuring him that there wasn't anything to worry about, that he was okay. If anything, he was just tired.

But he couldn't. He couldn't just give an answer like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He couldn't just brush off Todoroki's concern.

Because he didn't know. And that was what was scary about it.

Of course, it didn't take much to figure out where the source of his uncertainty had come from.

Killing the Nomu had been weighing heavily on his mind. It was only natural – He had taken a life. No matter how he tried to rationalize it, he had taken a life. There was a combination of feelings inside him that he didn't know how to process. Regret. Remorse… Pride, almost. Pride that he'd prevented such a creature from hurting more people. But with that, came guilt – How could he be proud of what he'd done? Denial too, was there, refusing to accept that he'd done harm to another Human being. That it was a thing that had been killed and automated long before he put it out of it's misery. In some ways though, trying to rationalize it as something else made it worse. Because it meant, deep down, he knew what he had done was wrong.

So, where did that leave him? The mixture of feelings, both positive and negative, were bouncing out of one another, and causing the other to multiply, leaving him confused and shaken. Would he have had another choice, if he hadn't killed the Nomu? Had he set the tone for the treatment of the Quirked with his actions? Had he even considered any alternatives?

He couldn't feel guilt – He'd saved people. He'd saved a ton of people who hadn't even realized that they had needed saving when he stopped the Nomu. And what about the people who had nearly been killed by it? Surely they wouldn't want there to be a risk of such a beast getting free again.

But those were excuses. And he knew it.

Was he okay? He couldn't give an honest answer. And he hadn't given Todoroki or Mina one at all.

Because he just didn't know.

And maybe, he would never know.

"Midori?" He felt his head turn on its own after a gentle call of his name, coupled with a slightly tug on his shoulder pulled him back into the real world. "You okay?"

Izuku took a moment to figure out the rest of the world that he had zoned out from for a while. They were close to reaching Yuuei – A lot closer than they were what seemed like five minutes ago. Five minutes ago, he could have sworn that they were still at the train station. For them to have gotten this far, he would have had to have been zoned out for at least a solid forty-five minutes. Frankly, he was amazed that he had even been able to follow the path back to the school. He must have been on automatic the entire time.

Eri was up front, having her hand held by the Half-Cold-Half-Hot teenager, on his warmer side. He seemed to have taken it onto himself to make sure that she didn't wander off. They were about seven meters ahead, Todoroki occasionally glancing back to make sure that his friend hadn't fallen too far behind. Mina had stayed back, to be certain that he wasn't going to get lost, and was only now talking to him, to try to bring him back into reality.

He blinked at her a few times, before he finally seemed to acknowledge his surroundings. He couldn't answer her question any easier than he could answer it when Todoroki had asked.

Instead, "…Do…. Do you think that I did the right thing?"

"Huh?"

"W…. With the Nomu. Do… Do you think I did the right thing?" The truth was, he had no idea how the others felt about what he had done. He hadn't asked, primarily because he had been doing his best to shuffle the memory away as much as he could.

Mina's eyes seemed to fall as he asked, and she glanced away from him as they walked. "…I …I think you did what you thought was best. And it doesn't… Change anything. Not to me, anyway."

Her answer was kind… "…Thank you, but, that isn't what I meant…"

She was avoiding the question, not that he couldn't understand her hesitance to. They were talking about ending a life here. No matter how grotesque and dangerous it was, it was still…. A difficult question to answer.

"… I…" She paused, and then sighed. "Do you want the honest answer, or the one that'll make you feel better?"

"T… Then honest answer."

"I really don't know." Mina sighed. "It's not like I don't get it, or like I blame you. You did what you had to do in the heat of the moment… And it can't have been an easy choice for you. Hell, if being a Hero has taught me anything, it's that a lot of the choices that we make are always spur of the moment. So I'm not upset with you, if that's what you're worried about."

A small smile was offered, briefly, before she brought her hands together. There was the need for a pause while she thought about what she was going to say, and how she was going to say it. There was a way that she wanted to express herself, without seeming to be harsh towards her friend, whom she'd grown to care for so much.

"…But… I don't know. I… I wish it hadn't had to go that far." She sighed again. "It… I don't know. It doesn't feel right. Even though I know you did the right thing at the time, it still just… I don't know, I can't explain it. I… I don't think its your fault at all, Midori. You did what you needed to… I just… Wish you hadn't needed to. Y'know?"

To her surprise, after a few seconds of stillness, Izuku nodded. "…I know. Me too."

Something about him just sounded so… Weak. So broken and defeated that Mina didn't even know where to start. The Izuku that she knew was someone who always took the best that he could of a situation that was terrible. He was optimistic almost to a fault, and he always seemed to have a smile on his face, even at the worst of times. He was always trying his hardest to keep the morale up whenever he could, and always had a plan. He was always thinking, always coming up with new ideas. Always theorizing, always reminding her that they were going to change the entire world.

But right now, it was clear he was hurting. Hurting because he wasn't sure if he'd made the right choice. Because he now wasn't sure if he was a good person or not. Despite all his efforts, he couldn't say with certainty if he was anymore.

What sort of Hero killed another person? Even when there was no other choice, what right had he had to do something like that?

Mina couldn't even honestly begin to guess everything that was going on in his head. And if there had been any way to alleviate what was going on inside his mind, she would have done it, the first chance that she could. But there wasn't anything that she could say that would make all of his internal strife go away. They couldn't even make him see a therapist – What would they even say to one? That their fiend felt guilt for killing a mutated Human while being a vigilante Hero? Besides, many therapists refused to see Quirked people.

The only thing that would help him was time. That and comfort.

She took hold of the hand that was hanging by his side. It was limp, and there didn't feel like there was any strength or tension in it whatsoever. And his hand was cold. But she held onto it. She couldn't think of anything else. It was the only offer of comfort that she could even think to offer, and that wasn't much at all.

It took a few moments, but she felt his hand gently squeeze his back/ His head tilted towards her, and his lips curled into – However small it may have been – A smile.

There was a lot that Mina felt that the two of them needed to talk about. His mental state. What his plans were. How he was dealing with everything, and what he wanted to do. There was so much about so many of his choices that she didn't fully understand. One of the many was why, after such a long period of time, he still chose to hide his Quirk from the others. What benefit did he see in such a move? And what were his plans after this orphanage situation was resolved? And what about Heroism? Frankly, she wouldn't have been surprised if he wanted Maverick to take an early retirement. She didn't think that anyone would be able to blame him for it either.

One of the biggest things that they had avoided even mentioning to one another, was the incident that happened in the first week they knew each other. A heat of the moment near kiss that Mina had done her best to try to avoid bringing up again, or even think about. As more and more happened though, and they went deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole that was Heroism, and their pursuit to improve the Quirked situation, that memory kept returning to the surface. She had done everything to ignore it the best that she could. It wouldn't be fair to bring it up now, after such a long time had passed – This had happened months ago.

Somehow though, with the situation seeming to get tougher for him, Mina had this feeling that she couldn't quite explain, that she felt that if she didn't bring it up soon, she wasn't going to get the chance. Like things were going to start coming to a head really soon. It was selfish, she knew, to even think like that…. But she couldn't stop herself. She couldn't help it. There were answers that she needed. And she would ask.

Once the situation had lightened up for them. And she could ask, without adding to his troubles.

They entered the Yuuei grounds once more, the small beeping that indicated Izuku's Quirkless origins going off yet again, like it always did every time he stepped foot into the place, going away quickly once it registered his student ID. Once though the gate, they entered the courtyard, and both Mina and Todoroki let out small sighs.

"Never thought I'd feel so relieved to be back here." Todoroki said, not to anyone in particular. Somehow, he'd just felt more exposed out there than he had previously. No doubt due to the added tension due to The First Generation's fight with the Nomu causing tensions. "I'll take Eri and go and talk to the Head. Might as well get it over and done with."

"I… I should go with you." Izuku said, making his voice known to Todoroki for the first time since leaving the station. "This was all my idea. I should be there when you explain it to him."

"Midoriya, you're in no state to do anything like that." The scarred teenager said as flatly as he could. "You need to rest."

He was going to argue, but Izuku felt Mina's hand squeezing his, as if to send a message to him that she wanted him to do the same. He was supposedly their Hero team's leader, and above all, their friend. It didn't feel right for him to just be sat around while others were taking the brunt for his decisions. It should be him that was there, explaining himself. Not Todoroki.

But he knew he was outnumbered. And he knew that this wasn't an argument he was going to win. "Alright." He sighed. They had a point, he supposed. He'd been working on only a few hours of rest, and that couldn't be doing him any favours. Maybe getting a bit of rest would do him some good. "Me and Mina'll head back to the dorms. I'll… Get some sleep, I guess."

"That sounds like a good idea."

"…Midoriya?" Three sets of heads all turned towards the child that they had been supposed to drop off at the orphanage earlier. It was the first time in the entire day that she had actually spoken, even in spite of Mina's best efforts to befriend the small, horned child.

There was shyness there – Very clearly. This was a child who was so anxious of other people she hadn't said a single word all day. Given the life she had been forced to lead because of her Quirk, it wasn't like it was all too surprising, but it had been unsettling nonetheless.

The first words that she had to say though managed to help lighten the mood of a bleak conversation.

"T…Thank you…"

Izuku blinked. What was she thankful for? For not leaving her at the orphanage? For his proposed plan? Or had she managed to somehow see past their act, and realized that the three who were here were the ones who had liberated her from the Yakuza, however unlikely that seemed? Izuku couldn't really guess any one of those reasons for himself.

But he felt himself, for the first time since the Nomu incident, feel a hint of happiness and pride in himself that he was happy to have. He didn't know what he was being thanked for, but he must have done something right.

Frankly, that was what he needed right now. His face managed to light up the brightest that it had been all day. He smiled. "You're welcome."

It was a small joy, but it was joy regardless.

Even if it was fleeting.

Todoroki took Eri away, headed towards the main building, while Izuku waved bye to the young child he took with him. There was still a part of him that felt guilt for not going along, but he knew that Todoroki wasn't just going to give up because he wasn't there. Both of them were orphans. Todoroki would look after her, and he wasn't going to back down. Izuku trusted him.

Both he and Mina made their way towards the 1A dorm building, fatigue finally catching up to Izuku. He hadn't realized how exhausted he actually was until he started thinking about it. Come to think about it, he had fallen asleep on the train to the orphanage, hadn't he – A fact already forgotten due to his exhaustion. Maybe sleep was the better option, the more thought that he gave to it.

He could deal with the ramifications of refusing to leave Eri at the orphanage when he had a clear head. And he had a full day ahead of him come tomorrow. A yawn escaped his mouth.

"You fucking sneaky piece of shit!"

And in that moment, the sounds of detonations blasted right through the air.

They came from inside the building, and the sound that they made was so crisp, so sharp, and so loud in volume, that they could probably be heard anywhere within a twenty-meter radius. Izuku and Mina both felt their eyes shoot wide open after they heard blasts. There wasn't even a slight nanoseconds doubt that they came from Katsuki's Quirk. His voice, in the few seconds before all other sound was deafened by the sound of his power, conveyed nothing but fury and wrath.

Izuku felt his heart freeze – Now what was going on? He was wide awake now.

"What the hell was that?!" Mina yelled aloud instinctively, covering her ears.

Normally Katsuki's explosions weren't this loud – they were loud, certainly, and if one listened to them continuously for an extended period of time, the chances were that they were going to end up with a case of tinnitus, but never did they sound like a tank firing off a shell. Students from other dorms seemed to be just as confused and curious as the pink girl and the blacked haired boy were, yet none dared to step foot in the 1A building. None wanted to be the ones to take the first steps to figure out the source of the noise, despite wanting to know what was going on. A paradox of anxiety and uncertainty.

"Get the fuck off of me!" Katsuki's vicious yelling could be heard once more, this time more furious than Izuku thought he'd ever heard the guy. Just the sound of his voice seemed to make the students who didn't know him utterly petrified. "You motherfucker! You fucking motherfuckers! I'm gonna fucking kill the lot of you! Do you fuckin' hear me?!" He roared, and more blasts seemed to erupt from his palms. There didn't seem to be any scuffling though. No footsteps, or crashing. No sounds of much movement that one would expect from a fight.

"Grab hold of Uraraka too!"

"I'm on it!"

"Don't you lay a fucking hand on her, you roadkill fuck! Get me out of this – I'll fucking **end you –** _Mmf!"_

There wasn't any hesitation left in either Izuku or Mina – They didn't have then the first clue what was going on in there, but whatever it was, it was serious. Something particularly ruthless, vicious enough to make Katsuki lose every single ounce of calm, collectiveness that he had left in his body, and throwing off his filter to become an erupting, swearing volcano with explosive powers at his palms. The two of them charged right in, practically throwing the door right off of it's hinges as the charged to the second floor, where the sounds seemed to be coming from.

About two thousand thoughts seemed to be ringing through Izuku's head. What was going on? They were being attacked, there wasn't any question about that – but by who?

By Shigaraki's group? Had they somehow found out that they were The First Generation? Was it some sort of Quirkless insertion, trying to cause trouble out prejudice? He had heard voices while outside, but the ringing from his friend's explosions and shrieking had dulled his ability to identify them by word alone. There were at least two up there, he knew that for sure. But that was really all that he could be sure of. And in addition to that, he didn't know if anyone else was affected. What about the other members of their building? The people he'd grown to consider friends – Were they okay? Were they even in the building, or had they also been targeted?

Every sense that he had was on high alert. And part of him was tempted to go in Full Cowling, and attacking anything that even moved – But then, he would risk injuring one of this dorm-mates. He needed to see what the situation was before he started trading blows with whoever.

He bolted up the staircase, and skidded into the open space, his fists ready to fly if he needed them to.

Instead, he was greeted by something that just made his jaw, and hands, drop. Katsuki and Uraraka, both tied up with tape. Tape that came from Sero's Quirk. The room looked like it had been the location of a skirmish, though it was brief and had been over in just a few moments – Tape was strewn around the room, and blast marks were also – Signs of the fight that had been going on before Izuku and Mina both got into earshot. Both of the Quirkless-born's friends were up against a wall, their hands wrapped up as well as the rest of them, Katsuki's wrappings looking considerably bulkier. Even that hadn't been enough to stop him, so he'd been stuck right up against the wall, like he was some kind of prisoner of war. Uraraka's wasn't quite as sever, but she was still tied up. Both of their mouths had been covered up by the tape.

Katsuki had been the one to throw the first punch – There wasn't any doubt in Izuku's head about that. What Sero had done had been retaliatory, trying to end the fight – If they had been the aggressors, then there wouldn't even be any signs of a fight. The two First Generation members would have been tied up before they could even start to fight back. They could have just sneaked up on them. Or surprise attacked before either could react in any way.

So there wasn't any doubt that Katsuki had struck first.

But over what?

Sero's eyes quickly met Izuku's.

Then, Izuku's quickly met Kirishima's.

What had happened very quickly became clear.

Behind Kirishima, there was just about everyone else – Sato and Shoji seeming to try to keep a few of them out of the line of fire with their own bodies as the shields, whilst some, like Yaoyorozu, Mineta and Kaminari stood by Kirishima. Monoma also was there, with his arms folded. In a way, they seemed to mirror the group that Izuku and his own group had. Only with clearly more violent results.

Kirishima's Quirk was activated, around both his jaw, and his fists – At least, visibly. Underneath his uniform, his entire torso could have been rock solid for all Izuku knew just by looking at him. There were a few scuff marks along his cheek, but they didn't seem to hurt him at all.

And behind him, were Izuku's notebooks. Scattered, some on the table, and some on the floor. One in Kirishima's hands.

For Izuku, the words didn't come. Katsuki scream-muffled something. It was unintelligible. Incomprehensible. Sero's Tape was firmly wrapped around his lips. The words were just caught in Izuku's throat. Part of him didn't want to acknowledge what was happening. That this was all part of some dream his mind had cooked up after he passed out from exhaustion. But it was all real. Painfully real. He could taste the smoke in his mouth, and feel the soot in his throat. Both side effects of Katsuki's explosions.

He tried to talk. But nothing came out.

Mina's came easier. "What the hell?! What the actual Hell is going on here?!"

It seemed like the room stood still for a moment – They hadn't been expecting the two of them to return. They hadn't been expecting Katsuki or Uraraka to show up either, and whatever their plan might have been, it was now in shambles, and they were making this up as they went along. There wasn't time to clear up, to remove their two other enemies from their…. Precarious situation.

But they had the proof on their side. And it was that which made those who were facing Izuku calm. They didn't seem even the least bit panicked. The only one who was showing any real emotion seemed to be Yaoyorozu, but that didn't seem to have much to do with the current situation, and she was trying to push it aside.

Kirishima glanced between the pink girl, and the green-eyed boy, and then looked at the book in his hands. It was open on a page that he'd found himself reading over and over again, to the point he was sure he could recite it all without needing the words. But the book helped serve the point, so it stayed in his hands. He read aloud. "'Ejirou Kirishima. Quirk, Hardening. It turns his skin as hard as rock – Both the perfect defence and offense. Versatile for combat and defending himself and others. It also might give him enhanced strength – Or at the very least, the ability to use the strength all Humans have, but restrict themselves from using, without feeling any pain. Probable weaknesses include a finite level of durability.'" His blood red eyes then darted towards Izuku's. "If he suffers enough damage, it seems likely that his defence will wear down, in a manner similar to that of erosion.'" The Hardening Quirk user then flipped through more pages. 'Quirk, Dupli-Arms. Quirk, Earphone Jack. Creation, Pop-Off, Acid, Explosion, Large fist, Vines' – There are notes in here of 1B students, for Gods sake."

The book was then dropped underneath Kirishima's foot.

"And there are seventeen of these fucking things. You've got every single person in Yuuei's Quirk in these things, and a bunch of other Quirks that I haven't even heard of."

"Where did you get those?..." Was all Izuku asked. A stupid question. He already knew exactly what had happened. His question was quiet. Almost a whisper.

"You son of a bitch." Mina's voice was just as quiet, but the sheer fury that was in it exploded. She had wanted to bust Kirishima's head in from practically the first day that they met one another, for his insistence on Izuku's inherent amorality. This proved to her though, who the truly amoral one was. "You didn't have the right!"

"No reference about your Quirk though, is there?" The Hardening Quirk user looked unaffected by Mina's yelling. Like he was blocking it out. His attention was focused squarely on Izuku. "Nothing about this 'Super special pass-it-along' Quirk you claim to have."

"I'm gonna turn you into a pile of melted flesh!" Acid formed in Mina's palms. Her breathing was as heavy as it could get – Sheer rage in her being was making her almost blind with hate.

He was sat there, preaching and acting like he was the saviour here, when Izuku had done nothing wrong! Izuku had driven himself crazy! He'd pushed himself to the brink! The physical brink, and the mental brink! He didn't even know if he was a good person on a basic level anymore! All for what?!

To help scumbags like this? This was what Izuku had decided to risk his life for?! What he'd decided to kill for?! What he was losing his mind for?! All he had done was give, and give, and give! Give, give, give, and he'd never asked for anything in return for himself!

For this?!

It made Mina want to scream – And to lash out with so much vicious fury that she would probably be unrecognizable to those around her. If anyone deserved to have an acid burn right now, it was Kirishima.

All she needed was a reason -

"Mina, don't."

Izuku held his arm up, blocking her path before she even took a step forward. He didn't even look at her as he blocked her way.

She stopped before she ran into his arm, honestly shocked more that anything that he was going to stop her from doing this. "Midori, are you out of you – "

"Don't." The boy's response was firmer this time, and he looked towards her from the corner of his eye. Just the look he gave her seemed to tell her not to charge right in. He turned back towards Kirishima.

Hiding his hurt was an impossible task. After the biker incident, he truly had come to believe that things had been patched up between the two of them. They didn't talk all that much, no, but Izuku hadn't ever thought that something like this would happen.

Some part of him had even decided that Kirishima was someone that he could trust, clearly against his better judgement. And a big part of him blamed himself, for not making the effort more. For not focusing on trying to convey his feelings of unity with those in his dorm. For not doing enough to convince them that he was really on their side. And that made him feel sick to his stomach.

How much more was he going to fuck up?

Was this avoidable? Could there have been a way to reach out to him? Something like this… It wasn't ever all that far from Izuku's mind when he first joined Yuuei – Even to this day, he still maintained caution about where he hid his belongings. But he hadn't thought about it for so long, believing that the threat that Kirishima used to represent to be past them.

Suddenly, he had no idea who here were his allies anymore. Who his friends were – Had any of them been honest? Had any of those whom treated him in a friendly, or even indifferent manner merely been doing so to hide their contempt for him?

"…What do you want?" He asked, solemnly. He needed to know what this was all about, if he was to have even the slightest prayer of trying to resolve this situation. He didn't know what answer to expect. But he was sure that no matter what he did, there was going to be a conflict between them.

Not that he wanted one.

Kirishima's teeth showed as his smirk grew. "You can start by telling everyone what the hell you're doing here, Quirkless."

"I'm here because I want to try and fix things between the Quirkless and the Quirked. That's why I accepted my Quirk in the -"

"Oh, drop the act already." Snapped Monoma, apparently already sick of even being in the same presence as Izuku. "We've already figured out that you're here to try and find some sort of way to whip us into line if we don't do as we're told." He seemed to spit the words as they came out. "And quit the line about having some kind of Quirk – We all know you're full of shit."

The Quirk. His Quirk. Could showing them have made a difference?

Keeping it hidden had been part of his plan – When he realized that no one in 1A was going to take him seriously, it honestly came as a bit of a relief.

He could pretend to not have a Quirk.

The only reason he was in Yuuei was because he had accepted One For All - But it was so dangerous to show anyone, he just couldn't. People had to take his word for it – And who would take his word for it? He was Quirkless as far as they knew – The X-ray tests didn't detect any signs of a Quirk, and announced him as Quirkless. No one would believe that he had a power.

So attending Yuuei as a Quirkless student really did seem like a reality. It really did seem to be possible. He could just hide his power. Claim that it was some kind of joke if anyone ever truly questioned him, that he made out of fear of them passing judgement on him.

It had backfired, as it turned out.

"It's not a lie. I really do have a Quirk – "

"A Quirk you refused to show anyone!"

"Because he couldn't use it without blowing his arm up!" Mina yelled, trying to defend her friend. "Midori, go on – Show them!"

"Mina – "

"Show them!" The desperation that was in her voice became so clear it almost hurt just to hear. She wanted to beat Kirishima within an inch of his life – But more than anything else, she just wanted this to stop. She wanted this to just be over.

"Don't bother." Kirishima said. "Monoma here has a Quirk called Copy – He can copy your 'Quirk', and prove to everyone here and now that you're just full of garbage. And then you can explain to everyone here what you're doing here and then you can get the hell out of Yuuei – Assuming we don't throw you in the nearest basement, and throw away the key."

Izuku just blinked.

He had always known Kirishima had a pathological hatred of the Quirkless. He'd made no secret of his distaste, and spoke highly on how he wanted some sort of revolt, to force some sort of pro-Quirked laws to be forced into place. His methods sounded extreme, but his heart always seemed to be in the right place, at least. It was one of the few things that Izuku honestly would say he admired about the Hardening Quirk user.

In a sense, the two of them had similar goals, just at two opposing ends of the extreme. He looked at Katsuki and Uraraka, both screaming muffled things at him that were incomprehensible.

He looked at Kirishima and his group. All seemingly determined to prove what a scumbag he was.

He looked at Mina, seeing the worry that was present in her eyes.

He looked at himself and his own hands.

And he just laughed.

" _Pffft_! Seriously?" He struggled to stop himself from laughing – Laughter that he truly had no idea where it was coming from. But all of the sudden, despite every single person in the entire building looking at him like he'd lost his very goddamn mind, he couldn't stop himself from laughing like a maniac. " _That's_ your master plan?! Ha ha ha!"

Every set of eyes in the room was focused on Izuku. Some people suddenly became terrified of him, while others seemed to just be confused. Others almost took pity on him, seeing him as someone who was just broken by the confrontation. Mina couldn't take her eyes off of him, even to blink – What on earth did he find so funny about this situation?! Had he seriously just gone crazy?!

Others though, suddenly found themselves annoyed. "What's so Goddamn funny?!" Kirishima yelled, feeling his cool slip, and his hands sharpen as his Quirk intensified.

A good question – One Izuku couldn't even begin to answer himself. Perhaps it was because deep down, he knew that he'd won. That this was going to end up going his way, no matter what way it went. He hadn't expected this – He hadn't wanted this – But this was an opportunity that was far, far too good to turn down.

Because it was going to highlight just how dumb this whole ordeal truly was. It made Izuku laugh the more and more he thought about it.

It was a logic that made no sense – Not to anyone expect Izuku.

But that was more than enough for him.

Conflict was the name of Kirishima's game.

"You – You seriously think – Okay then." He somehow managed to force himself to stop laughing, and grin right back at the Hardening Quirk user. "You think Monoma is going to prove once and for all that I don't have a Quirk?"

"Haven't you been listening?" The 1B student retorted. "My Quirk let's me copy your Quirk – And Copying nothing means nothing!"

If that was what they wanted.

"Well then!" Izuku chuckled. "If that's how you feel – Why don't you and I have a fight?"

* * *

 **And here we see how Izuku has been affected by his duties as a Hero. And we see Kirishima finally showing his true colours (Man the light novels made this pretty accurate, huh) But here it is! Next chapter, we finally get to see the fruits and labours of the last 15 or so chapters of the tension at the Yuuei dorms.**

 **This chapter was fun, if long, to make – I've honestly been wanting to wrap up some projects because of stress, and while FG still has a while to go, I thought that getting a big chunk of it done would help my mental state a bit. The story had changed a lot of the last few weeks, especially in the plans for it, but I do honestly think that what I have planned will be far better than anything I had originally stored away. I ended up inspired a lot by Detroit- Become Human (Say what you like about David Cage, but Detroit was a fun game I thoroughly enjoyed watching) And Rei De Lata, a Brazilian webcomic inspired by MHA – I've had a lot of FG in my head lately, and I've more or less planned out all the major events – And I'm honestly thinking that they're going to be part of what will be a great story – If I do my part well.**

 **I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter – And As I remind everyone – Tumblr, Ko - Fi, Pat Reon, and now, Twitter, are all out there, under the name QuirkQuartz – I don't expect donations, but if you guys want to support what I do, any donations are heavily appreciated, as are follows on social media, which will also let you keep up to date with the things that I'm up to.**

 **Thank you all for reading – and I'll see you all next time!**


	25. Confrontation

Izuku had lost his mind.

That was the only explanation that Mina could come up with. He had fully lost what few strands of sanity that he had been clinging to since their previous outing.

There wasn't any need for any of this – It didn't even make any sense whatsoever. There was no need to fight Monoma just to prove that Kirishima was being an idiot – Just show off One For All's Full Cowling ability, and this would all be over! All of the hostility that Kirishima had towards Izuku would be gone! It would probably be enough to make him at the very least reconsider all of the crap that he'd been talking over the last few months.

But Izuku had decided that it was necessary to show off his inherited power in a show of force. Like it would make any serious difference. Like that was somehow, going to fix the situation. There wasn't any logic to it at all. Nothing that made any sense, obvious or otherwise.

Not to her, at least.

It was like Izuku wasn't even himself at this point. Izuku had been, until this point, one of the smartest people that Mina had ever known. He was methodical, and careful, and when he considered something, he really explored every single angle. The whole idea of Heroes was his, and he had weighed up all the pro's and all the cons carefully before he allowed himself to commit to the idea.

Everything had to take its toll on him. Mina got the feeling that he didn't like being a leader all that much, but took on the role because he had no other choice. His friends had grown to rely on him, and look towards him for direction. It wasn't the role that he wanted, but it was the role that he'd been given, and he was doing his best to make the most out of it. He'd earned all of their respect.

Now though, it was clear that relying on him too much had damaged his psyche.

They weren't in the 1A dorms anymore. They weren't even outside them. Instead, they had made their way towards the training blocks that The First Generation group had previously used to try to improve their Quirks, and test out their costumes. The one in which the security camera had been a part of hadn't been replaced, but the rest of the damage, like the holes and cracks, all had been. It was the only place that Izuku could think of that would allow this fight to go ahead uninterrupted.

Izuku was surprised that Kirishima and Monoma even agreed to it – Though it was probably a lot better than the alternative options – Having the fight in their dorm-house, and messing the place up more, or having it outside the dorm-house, and risk having someone come to break up the fight.

Given the opportunity to prove his rantings right, Kirishima wouldn't want to risk being interrupted. Besides, he had a feeling this was going to be a lot more brutal a fight than anyone else seemed to realize.

So here they were. Izuku and Mina, along with a freed Katsuki and Uraraka, finding themselves standing opposite a long, concrete corridor from most of the rest of their class, and a fairly substantial part of the Yuuei student body too. Crowds attracted by the sounds of the battle that had taken place inside the 1A dorms, and those who saw the crowd followed to see what was going on. Many of them still distrusted, or even resented Izuku.

Good, was all Izuku thought. He wanted them to hate him right now. Because it was going to make this all the more impactful.

He smirked.

"Deku, this is insane!" Uraraka protested once more, clearly panicked by everything. "This – This doesn't – I don't – " She was just as flabbergasted as Mina, and easily understandably so. "This – This is insane!"

"You ask me, this had been a long fucking time coming." Katsuki retorted, a smug smirk on his lips. His preference for action as opposed to diplomacy had been well established. And he certainly wasn't in much of a mood to be diplomatic with Kirishima, Sero, or anyone else who sided with either, after he'd been taped up to a wall. The opportunity to see them eat the dirt for once was one he welcomed. "These fuckers have been trying my patience from day one. About time Deku got it into his head that we need to stand up to them."

Unlike Katsuki though, Uraraka had no such desire for conflict. "But this isn't necessary! All he needs to do is show them that he has a Quirk, and this can all be over!"

"Uraraka's right, Midori!" Mina said, trying everything that she could possibly think of to get him to stop this madness. "You don't even need to go this far! I don't – I don't get it!"

"I don't expect you to."

Izuku's response was ominous. Cryptic. Like he wasn't that keen on having others fully understand what he was thinking. Almost like he didn't want them to completely understand. Like he was thinking on some other plane that the others just wouldn't be able to understand. Like arrogance had entered every single cell in his brain.

The truth though, was a lot more human, and down to Earth, even if it was a rather callous logic.

"I can't explain it." He said, though it wasn't exactly true. He probably could explain these feelings and the reason he felt the need to confront those whom didn't trust him, but he'd need several hours to, and that was time he just didn't have. He looked across the other side of the training room, and saw Momoma and Kirishima speaking. "I…. I have to fight Monoma. I just have to."

"Why?!" That wasn't an answer! That was the biggest none answer Mina had ever heard in her life!

The Quirkless had more reason for their persecution of the Quirked than this – Quirks were scary, get them away. It was horrendous, and had caused nothing but grief, but there was some sense to it. But there wasn't any here.

Not unless Izuku just had finally reached the point where he was as hungry for revenge as those who did their thinking with their heart, and not their heads. And it wasn't like that wouldn't be understandable – After everything that he'd been through, it was quite possible that he'd just found himself unable to just sit back and allow himself to be walked over again. Maybe what had happened with the Nomu had caused him far more damage than anyone had realized.

Which was part of why Mina was so concerned and horrified by all of this.

All of this just had come right out of the blue. All day, he had been violently depressed. The Nomu incident had bothered him, and even though he refused to let that stop him, he still wouldn't simply go to rest without a fight. And now, here he was, ready to apparently batter Monoma into the next oblivion.

Was this him? Was this really Izuku, in his right mind, or was it the accumulate stress, depression, fatigue and reaction to the break in all taking over his rational thinking?

If he did this, was he going to regret it later? Or was this something he truly thought was best, in his right mind?

Katsuki chuckled. "You've finally got some fucking sense into you, Deku." He almost seemed proud.

Granted, he had enough solid faith in his friend to go along with this, no matter what, and he's be the first in line to assure Izuku that he'd done the right thing if he came to regret it. But still, it didn't make Mina want to throw a brick at his head any less.

What was more important to him – His personal desire to see Kirishima and Monoma humiliated and beaten down, or his friends well-being?!

"I wouldn't celebrate yet, Kacchan." Izuku said. "I… I know what I'm doing."

Calmness was all that came out of Izuku's mouth. A calm, collected response that had an underlying confidence underneath it. There was no reason for him to be worried. He knew that, and so did everyone around him. Still, for him to be able to exercise such an emotional distance from the situation was impressive, if nothing else. Everyone around him was more worked up than him, and he was the one that was on the front-line. It would be easy to let anger, fear, frustration and irrationality take over, but Izuku kept his composure. He looked over his shoulder, and saw Kirishima and Monoma hold their hands at head height, and clasped them together.

A sign of unity. Defiance. And were it any other two people, Izuku would have thought nothing more of it. But he knew better.

Again, just as he expected. His composure remained. A small sigh escaped his lips.

"I… If Kirishima is just shown that he's wrong, all that's going to happen is that he'll see he was wrong about me. And that won't change his mind. Not with what he's lived through." He tried to explain. "He's got these ideas… About how the world should be. About what the roles of the Quirked and the Quirkless should be. But I get the feeling he does care about people with Quirks… Inherently, I don't think he's a bad guy… But… His ideas are just wrong. He thinks that the Quirked need to use brute force. That they need to fight like lunatics, and cause enough anguish and grief in people that they'll give up and let him and his group do whatever they want. But… He's let himself get consumed by it." For a moment he paused. He'd been assessing Kirishima ever since he'd met the guy, and he felt like he understood what was making him work, even though Kirishima himself didn't. "Getting me out of Yuuei… It's never been about protecting the Quirked."

The others listened. For the first time since this standoff commenced, they didn't interrupt him. They let him talk.

So he carried on.

"…For him, it's been about getting the Quirkless out of the same place as him, because… I remind him of what happened to him. A Quirkless teenager, showing up in a place where everyone was supportive of each other… Of course he'd hate me." He shuddered, remembering the first day he met Kirishima, and learned about what had happened to him. "I… I think he lost his family to purists."

"H-Huh?" Uraraka gasped, but it was quiet.

Suspicions had been inside Izuku's mind for a long time. Kirishima's scars and where they had come from had been one of the first things he'd learned about the red-haired teenager.

When it came to his past, Kirishima tended to be tight lipped. Not unless people knew him very well. So what had given Izuku that idea? It was based on next to nothing.

Finally, Izuku turned to face Monoma. He could see his opponents grin – He thought he already had won this fight. He was a broken man walking, and only Izuku knew it.

"What the hell makes you say that?" Mina asked. Sweat was dropping from her forehead, and every pore that she had available on her skull. "What does that have to do with anything?!"

"It's a hunch right now. The best I've got… But… It would explain why he's such a hardliner against Quirked-Quirkless interaction. He'd only be like this is he lost someone important to him. Young, and alone in the world… Of course he'd resent the Quirkless. If not his family, a close friend, or someone else who was somehow important to him, I don't know. But he's ended up turning into something that he hated – A purist. And just proving that I'm not like the other Quirkless won't be enough."

He let out a sigh.

"I need to show him how absurd this all is. How utterly pointless all this fighting is. If I can just show him that, then maybe, just maybe…" He shook his head. "I can't expect anyone but me to understand this. But… I need to prove to him how insane this all is. And If I show Monoma too – All the better."

Nothing he said made any sense. He knew that all too well. He was the only one who knew what he meant, what he felt – And hearing himself speak, he didn't even have total confidence in his own words. He didn't even know if he trusted his own gut, or his own theories.

If only Todoroki were here. He'd probably be able to make more sense out of it.

Maybe. But he was still with Eri. He probably didn't even know that this was happening.

Then again, he was glad, in that sense at least. At least Eri wouldn't be made to see this, and would be somewhere far from what was about to happen.

At the end of the day, all that mattered was putting this matter to bed. It had haunted over the entirety of Yuuei ever since the day he stepped foot onto the grounds. Yuuei had always been a danger zone, a battleground for him and those who chose to associate with him. And it had developed more than Izuku had ever imagined. He had trusted Kirishima. He'd wanted to believe that one fight side by side had been enough.

It hadn't.

But this would.

This had to end.

He sighed again, and then took a step forward. His hands balled up into fists, and he let himself grin.

His fists slammed into one another. "Let's get this over with."

For a moment, it almost felt like it was a boxing match, or a martial arts tournament, and not a genetics-based grudge match between two teenagers whom held superpowers in their bodies. If this were some sort of sports competition, Monoma was the clear crowd favourite. Honestly, Izuku wasn't certain that he had any fans in the crowd of people who were fighting to get a glimpse of what was about to go down.

People who didn't want harm to come to him, sure, but not people who actively wanted him to be the one to come out victorious.

There wasn't any kind of official start to the match either. No referee to declare the match begun, no whistle, no bell, or anything of the sort.

Izuku just charged.

Without the use of One For All. For his plan to work, he needed to let the next few minutes pass, and make it look like he was bluffing about having any kind of power in his veins. The next few minutes were already set to be brutal, and painful. Especially against Monoma right now.

Confirmation of that came once he got within arms reach of the Copy Quirk user. His first was brought up, ready to launch straight for his jaw. Even without the use of his Quirk, he was fast, thanks to all the physical training he had. But he could be the strongest man in the world, and it wouldn't do a damn thing to counter the hook-punch that came slamming into his right cheek.

A hook-punch as solid as rock.

The punch carried Izuku along with it, knocking him off balance as anything with enough force would do. Air was blasted right out of his mouth, leaving him breathless. The room spun, before he managed to find his way back onto his feet.

Monoma had copied Kirishima's Hardening Quirk. Of course he had.

In Kirishima and Monoma's minds, there wasn't any doubt that Izuku was bluffing about having a Quirk. That he was going through with this fight just because he was stubborn. So – They might as well rough him up a bit. Force him to give up faster. Make him bleed.

Blood found its way onto Izuku's lips. He tasted the iron.

And grinned. Perfect.

Once his footing was back, he threw himself at Monoma again, changing nothing about his approach whatsoever – Running straight at his opponent, trying to launch a full-frontal assault.

Ending with the exact same result.

Next, he attempted to feint – Throw an attack to the right, and then actually attack with the left.

It ended the same way.

Then a kick.

Which was responded to with a Hardened kick, right against the hip-bone.

Mina wanted to charge out, to stop this with every single fiber of her being. Every single cell that she had was itching, aching to run out there and put an end to this.

Watching Izuku take strike after strike, only to just get up and charge straight in, asking for more – she not only couldn't understand it, watching it was physically painful for her, like she could psychosomatically feel the punches Monoma launched over and over again. This couldn't end well. She wanted to trust in Izuku, but how could she?

How could she trust that this was going to end well? How was she supposed to trust that this was going to have the effect Izuku wanted it to? How could anyone know that this wasn't going to wind up putting him in the nurse's office, or the hospital? And even if it went well, what happened after?

There was so much, she couldn't even begin to –

"Relax." A hand grabbed hold of her shoulder. Katsuki's. She could tell from the strength of his grip and how he didn't even bother being gentle in any way. "Have some faith."

"You're talking to me about faith?! He's not slept in two days, and he's not making any sense - "

"I've known the guy for sixteen years." The Explosion Quirk user glared at Mina, like he was trying to telepathically force her to shut up. "In case you haven't noticed, he's a fucking maniac. I've seen him go for over a week without sleep just looking after some Quirked prick we found on the streets. He's gone through a hell of a lot worse with people who have more of a spine than that shithead over there." His glare shifted over towards Kirishima, and then scanned over what was about to be the battlefield.

Izuku had been through bad situations before. Anyone who knew him for long enough saw first-hand that he didn't turn his back on a bad situation, but charged right in. He did everything he could to make things better, and it always ended up with him having the ever-loving crap beaten out of him. It always seemed like he got the short end of the stick, no matter what he did, or how hard he tried. And to Katsuki, Izuku had to have been insane. Constantly, he found himself faced with the sight of his best friend being beaten down, ridiculed, brutalized and shunned, all because of how he simply refused to join in with the discrimination against people with Quirks, and stood up for them. And he refused to change. He was even insane enough to accept a Quirk, just to come to this excuse of a dump for a school. He'd practically ended up devoting his entire life to facing adversity.

Katsuki spoke harshly about Izuku a lot – And he always meant it. The guy was reckless to the point of stupidity, and his idea of Heroism was flawed at best, completely and utterly stupid at worst. His insistence on helping every single person he met who had a Quirk, like they were little lost puppies, was not only frustratingly dumb, it was borderline insulting – Like Izuku saw the Quirked as injured animals that needed someone to look after them. Even if his intentions were as pure as gold, it didn't change the fact that irritation followed every single save he attempted. Still, Katsuki stood by him, because not only was he the best friend that he had, he owed him that much.

And by standing by him, he knew better than anyone.

He smirked, and folded his arms. "He's gonna be fine. Just sit back and enjoy the fight. Besides, get in there now, and you're only gonna get yourself hurt."

"Oof!" The sound of a smack recalled the blond and the pink-haired teenagers attention to the fight, if one could even call it that.

Yet another solid strike landed right into Izuku's gut, knocking all of the air straight out of him. His eyes shot wide open, and every ounce of strength that he had seemed to leave his body along with the oxygen. It hurt. Everything hurt. His hands, scratched and bruised from the few hits he had landed, against skin as solid as rock. His cheeks, and his head, all shaken by being knocked around. His legs, suffering from similar effects as his hands.

How long had the fight been going on? He hadn't been keeping track.

In a brief moment, before his head was knocked aside again by another punch, he managed to glance over Monoma's shoulder. Kirishima was smirking. No surprises there.

But no one else seemed to be.

Kaminari, Yaoyorozu and Mineta all had clear looks of discomfort on their faces. Wide eyes, slightly ajar mouths, hands over their chests and around their necks. Balled up into fists for some. Gritted teeth for others.

And behind them, there were even more of those faces and expressions.

Expressions of shock. Expressions of fear. Expressions of horror.

Exposing a Quirkless spy – That was one thing.

Brutally beating someone down in such a way, with such brutal manner, someone who couldn't even fight back fairly?

That wasn't a fight.

Another slug fell into the side of Izuku's face. One that he wasn't able to stand up to. He was thrown right onto the ground, and fell flat on his face.

There was a significant lack of blood, surprisingly. Most of the strikes seemed to be forming bruises. And lumps. A few cuts. Nothing major. The pain though, was not something that was lacking. There was plenty of that, all over. Enough to make his muscles ache. Yet it was clear, with how he struggled, and how his limbs shook as he tried to put weight into them, that he wasn't going to stay down. He was like a warrior, who needed his sense of honour to be satisfied.

It was pointless. A fight that wasn't going to end because both sides were too stubborn to just stop. One side, unwilling to surrender. The other, unwilling to just stop, even when it had won.

"Kirishima… You don't think that's enough?" Izuku heard Kaminari ask. "He's had enough."

There wasn't an answer. Kirishima just continued to glare at Izuku. The smirk that was on his face a few minutes ago was gone now. In its place, only a look of sternness resided. The same could be said about Monoma as well. No victorious grins, no smug self-assured satisfaction. Just a look of confusion and non-understanding.

There was nothing left. Nothing more for either side to prove. The victor here should have been clear. He hadn't suffered a single hit, and yet Midoriya was stood opposite him, black and blue, cuts and blood from his mouth and a single drip from his nose. But he wasn't backing down.

And no order to stop came.

Mina held her breath.

"What's wrong?" The smallest hint of laughter came out of Izuku's mouth. His torso and arms limped by his side, seemingly not even having the energy to keep himself upright. It almost made him seem demented. Like a corpse that retained its ability to walk like a biped, even though he was very much alive. "You tired?" Another amused witticism came, hurled from Izuku's mouth.

To the crowd, it looked like he'd lost his mind. He was injured. He looked like he'd been the victim of a Quirkless purist attack, and been made to stagger his way back home. So many people who saw him recognized the sight of someone who had suffered such a fate. They saw the blood and they saw the bruises. The difference though, was that he was somehow laughing.

What was so funny?

Outsiders could only speculate. The loss of blood was making him loopy, or maybe his brain had been rattled around inside his skull. Maybe the Hardening strikes had been a lot harder than they had first appeared. Maybe he was punch-drunk, or outright delirious. Or maybe he really was just absolutely crazy. No matter what the reason was though, Izuku's chuckles were unnerving. Unsettling.

And Mina wasn't doing any better than them.

"Stop it!" The sight was one that she found so harmful, it made every cell in her body burn up and want to cry. Nothing was harder than just standing there, and not running out there to hug him, and force him to stop this madness. She didn't care what point he was trying to make. She didn't care how badly it looked, or hurt their cause.

He didn't deserve this treatment. He didn't deserve what was happening to him right now, even if it was all his idea. Even if he was guilty of all the things that Kirishima accused him of, and more, he didn't deserve this.

Watching this happen, for what? What would this do for anyone? Why was he doing this? Why couldn't she go out there and make him stop?

Every one of his laughs, made her feel like her heart was breaking just that little bit more. Why was this happening to him? Why? "Leave him alone! Stop it!"

Tears ran down her eyes. This was killing her. Were it not for Katsuki's firm grip on her, she would be there, right now. It made her want to scream, to tear herself away no matter the consequences. She wanted to hold him. Tell him that he didn't need to go this far.

"K…Kirishima, I don't…" Yaoyorozu didn't seem to be able to find her words. They were lost in her throat as they tried to escape and form.

All around him, Izuku could see people thinking, and articulating the reasons for his laughter. Delirium. Insanity. Blood loss, or plain insanity. And the fact that they didn't know just seemed to make him laugh more, which ended up bring around a repeating cycle of amusement and hilarity as far as he was concerned. Because all of them were wrong.

It wasn't any of those reasons.

It was because it was now at four minutes, forty seconds.

Twenty to go.

He was laughing because it was time.

"What's wrong?" He asked, making sure that his smirk could be seen by all he faced. "Aren't you going to attack me?"

Four minutes, forty-five.

The Copy Quirk user's face twitched. Was this guy seriously asking for more? Was he that desperate to keep getting his ass kicked? Did he think that this was _fun_? That this was all some sort of massive joke?

Anger swiftly followed. Was this just some kind of game to him? Was that why he had dragged everyone here? What sort of messed up game even was this?

Logic was gone from Monoma's thinking, and Izuku could see it evaporate from his mind in the many details. His twitch, his frown, his glare – It all showed the signs of someone who wasn't in their right mind, forming up their own conceptions and wild theories in their own head. After dealing with the Quirkless for so long, he had learned to recognize the look.

Something similar to Kirishima had no doubt happened to Monoma. Izuku couldn't claim to know Monoma even slightly close to well enough to even hazard a guess as to what had befallen him. His hatred towards the Quirkless was so vicious, so personal, that he was letting himself be used as an attack dog, without complaint.

Four forty-five.

It almost made Izuku feel bad.

"Kirishima, this is enough." The Electrification Quirk user seemed to speak with more rigidness. Had he lost his nerve completely now? "Monoma. Monoma! That's enough! It's - "

Four fifty.

"Well, if you're not going to come to me." Izuku grinned. Suddenly, his body felt lighter, and readier to brawl than he had ever been at the start. Perhaps it was the adrenaline that was coursing through his veins, giving him the surge of strength that he needed. Or maybe it was just more of the sheer determination that had made him keep getting up after being knocked down. Or the knowledge that this was about to end.

Four fifty-five.

"Then I guess I'll have to come to you."

Izuku charged. The distance between he and Monoma was small, maybe only two meters, and he traversed that in less than a second. It took another second for Monoma to react, activating his copied Hardening, and throwing another punch towards his opponent.

This time, however, Izuku didn't allow him to strike where he pleased. This time, he met the strike front on.

Slamming his fist right against Monoma's Hardened fist.

Fifty-Eight.

All of this hinged on a suspicion that came with Monoma's Quirk. Copy allowed Monoma to mimic a Quirk that anyone that he touched had, for at least five minutes – That was information Izuku had gathered when he was studying all of his Yuuei compatriots' Quirks. And he could copy multiple Quirks at once, but was unable to use more than one at any one time. And right now, the Quirk he was using was Hardening.

Was Monoma keeping track of the time? And if he was, would he stop utilizing his Quirk during this exchange? Or would he continue to use it by instinct? Or would he even notice that his Copying had worn off?

He clearly hadn't been using any of his strikes to detect if Izuku was carrying a Quirk – Which only served to prove that this fight had never been about that. Not to Kirishima, and not to Monoma.

But if Monoma's Quirk was activated at the moment his Hardening Copy wore off –

Four fifty-nine.

… What would happen then?

Five minutes had passed since Kirishima and Momoma had shaken hands, and Monoma had Copied Kirishima's Hardening. In compliance with his time limit, the skin around his fist began to soften at a rapid pace, until there was just the soft flesh that came with every other normal Human body on the planet. Hardening was gone.

But Copy wasn't.

There was one incredibly brief moment, where Izuku and Monoma's eyes locked, where there was a look that displayed so much shock, and so much horror on the latter's face, that let the former know immediately that their plan had worked. Confusion, shock, horror and disgust all made their way onto Monoma's face in that brief moment as his brain entered clarity. Not that it lasted long.

Monoma's Copy traced the power that was One For All, and just like Izuku, his inability to control such a devastating power was surmountable. Instantly after the Copying process automatically begun, static charged built their way up all around the fist – And then the arm – That made the trace. Why the newly copied Quirk seemed to focus itself there was unclear – Because that was where Copy had been activated, and somehow that translated into One For All being focused there too?

Why didn't matter.

With barely even half a second to stop himself, or anyone else, ending up as a red smear across the back of the room, Izuku pushed the Copy Quirk users arm aside, so his hand went to face the leftmost wall. The sudden blast of energy – Enormous in its magnitude – Erupted straight from the movement, forcing the power to activate at full power. Like a gun's trigger accidentally pulled. Only with far more destruction involved.

Akin to a tank shell, the sheer power that shot from Monoma's arm shattered against the wall, tearing through it like it was a piece of paper, and obliterating an enormous hole in the concrete. Unlike Izuku, Monoma didn't have even the slightest grasp on the power of One For All, and the shock-wave that the copied power released was easily that of 100%. Dust and scattered sharps of concrete pelted the crowd, Izuku, and everyone around them as they moved to protect their faces and eyes from the damage. One wall however, wasn't even close enough to stop the power of One For All.

It wasn't until the smoke had all cleared up, that anyone would learn it had destroyed nearly every single wall in the enter training barracks.

Pain hadn't managed to send its message up to Monoma's brain. There was still a great too many things that were in his mind before that would get there. It was an experience Izuku was familiar with – The feeling of not feeling any pain, even when he knew that he should have been in abject agony. That moment of absolute nothingness, followed by acknowledgement – And then a feeling of having ones arm filled up to the very brink with needles and knives.

"Don't worry." He said to Monoma, who just looked at him with wide eyes, yet with no emotion. Given the predicament he found himself in, it wasn't much of a surprise. "I didn't have good control of it either at first."

One For All activated within his own veins, and in one right hook swipe, Izuku slammed Monoma's head against the ground with 5% Full Cowl. His 1B opponent was unconscious the second his head hit the floor. It wasn't often that someone could knock out another person like that, and claim it to be an act of mercy.

But this way, Monoma wouldn't have to deal with the crippling pain of his bones being ground up into dust. Even if he was going to wind up with a few scars.

Silence was the king for what felt like an hour, as absolutely nothing except the static charged that rippled off of Izuku's body dared to move. His own heavy breathing coupled the static to make the only noise. Everyone else was as still as stone, and equally as silent.

Not only had they seen One For All, they had seen its power. They had seen just what it was that Izuku kept within his body. What it was that he hadn't been able to risk showing them. For those in 1A, it was a moment in which abject disgust and horror gripped nearly every single one of them. As Izuku had known it would.

He was innocent. He'd been telling them the truth this entire time. As difficult as it was to believe, he had… Inherited a Quirk, as opposed to being born to develop one.

And in response, they had hounded him. Harassed him from day one.

Had that been what Izuku had wanted to show them? To beat it through even the toughest skull there just how wrong they were?

Of course not.

Katsuki knew what Izuku had been doing from the moment this all started. He understood it all perfectly – At least he felt he did.

To Izuku, the act of discrimination was one that held little to no substance, had no logic to it, and was something that he held in mass amounts of contempt, even if it was a completely understandable initial response in a world filled up with superpowers. And It was something that he opposed in absolutely every single incarnation. It was baseless, it was stupid, and it didn't have any justification. Prejudice, he decided, was always the step on the road to that act, and he fought that too. But he lived in a world where prejudicial fear was the norm. An age of evolution was the world in which he found himself, and both sides were terrified of the other. So gripped in fear to the point of irrationality, that they would let their imaginations take over, and create enemies where none existed.

And that was always something led to violence. Pointless violence in which one side attacked the other. Like the many unprovoked attacks on Quirked people in the streets.

It created the sense that the Quirked were the victims, certainly in their eyes. And they were, without question, the victims of a horrible injustice.

But to some, it meant they were above it. That they could utilize the same methodology as the people that attacked them. That they could – And indeed, should – Attack and harass innocent Quirkless, because their group did it first.

So Izuku had set out to show them how wrong that mentality was. How much it could lead to the destruction of their ideals. How much it could harm them in the long run.

By initiating random attacks, they were quite possibly attacking the people who wanted to help them. They were turning support for themselves away because of their barbarism. They were alienating even their own allies and fellow Quirked.

Izuku had been their target from day one – Someone who the Toe Test identified as Quirkless. An easy target, ripe for the hating. Even though they were attacking maybe the only Quirkless person in the known universe who was willing to go so far as to throw his own life away just to help them.

All because their prejudices ruled over them.

Unbeknownst to Katsuki though, he was only about half right. At least for why Izuku had done this. The other half was something only Izuku knew.

The One For All holder stood up, and looked around. Back towards Katsuki and Mina. He didn't know what to expect. Smiles. Looks of terror. Really, he didn't know what it was that he was going to see. And that prospect did actually scare him.

"Behind you!"

He wasn't able to react, before he felt his throat being clamped down on by a hand grip, and his body shoved against the wall with a sharp thud.

"How the hell did you do that?!"

Hardening slammed itself against Izuku's chest, as Kirishima's blood red eyes glared right into his green ones. His expression was one of a vicious maniac, furious and confused by what he had just witnessed. Something he couldn't believe. Or refused to.

"K-Kirishima!" Someone from behind him called.

"Let him go!"

"Enough!"

"Shut up!" He screamed at them, slamming his elbow against Izuku's chest again. "Tell me how you managed it!"

"Akk!"

"Fucking red haired prick!"

"This was a setup, wasn't it?!" Desperation and denial. "This – This is a trick! Tell me how you did it!"

"There's no trick…"

"Don't lie to me! We all saw the Toe Test! We all saw it! You're Quirkless! There – There's someone else who did that! Someone who – Someone who used their Quirk to make it look like you beat Monoma, isn't there?! That's' what happened, isn't it!"

Refusal. An absolute refusal to accept what was right in front of his eyes. It was the mark of people who refused to accept reality. Who didn't like what reality had to say. Kirishima refused this, because it meant he was wrong.

And he couldn't be wrong.

Because if he was wrong, who did he get to blame? Izuku had wished that it hadn't come to this. But there was no getting around it anymore. Logic wasn't going to work on Kirishima. He was too devoted to this. So he couldn't appeal to him, using logic, or using emotion.

Force was the only thing that he understood.

People were rushing to get between Kirishima and him. So he had to do this right now.

"Oh, for God's sake." He muttered, and then activated One For All Full Cowling throughout his body.

One arm of his was free, with which he used to reach out, and grab Kirishima by the collar. The veins in his own face glowed red as the power entered his body. And he flung every ounce of it straight into his next attack.

A solid, crisp headbutt, right to the forehead.

In the final moment, Kirishima's Hardening activated itself, purely on instinct, around his head. The result was that Izuku suffered a nasty cut, right across his forehead, above his right eye. He couldn't care less about it though – It didn't even hurt. The impact had been the same.

The impact being Kirishima, knocked right off of his feet, and thrown onto the floor. The strike had been intensely powerful, even if it was only 5%. It was more than enough to get the point across, especially against someone who seemed to refuse, down to his very core, that the person before him was Quirkless.

Now that he'd felt the power first hand, would he be able to claim the same?

"For fucks sake, Kirishima!"

The moment Kirishima hit the ground was the moment Izuku yelled, holding nothing back. There was venom, and viciousness in every syllable. Anger he had kept repressed towards the guy was now allowed to bubble to the surface.

" _What the hell is it going to take for you to get it into your skull that I'm on your side?!"_

People stopped moving.

"What do you want from me?!" Izuku shouted. Blood dripped form his cut, and over his left eye, not that he cared. "I've done everything in my power to try to show you that I'm on your side from day one! I've put up with your crap, I helped get rid of those bikers, I gave you every benefit of every doubt that I could! I've done _nothing_ to you _but_ been as amicable as I can be, and it's not enough for you! What do you want?!"

Not even Katsuki remembered hearing Izuku shout with such a ferocity. When Izuku got mad, it generally meant that one wanted to stay out of his way, but this was a whole new level.

"Y-You're Quirkless!" Kirishima protested, though it seemed much weaker than his normal level of ferocity. "We – We all saw – "

"Oh give me a break!" The black-haired boy shouted. "Can you just – For one Goddamn second – Open your eyes?! Your skin turns as hard as rock! Mina shoots Acid from her skin! Kacchan creates explosions! Todoroki makes both fire and ice! Is it really that fucking difficult to even consider the possibility that just maybe – Just maybe?! – There are Quirks that can be transferred from one person to another?! Is that outside the realms of possibility to you?!"

No answer came. Probably the most surprising thing that had happened all day – Kirishima was keeping his mouth shut.

"Of course its possible! We don't know a single thing about Quirks! You know that better than I do – You've got a Quirk you were born with for Gods sake! But you already set out the rules inside your head! This fight didn't have anything to do with me being a Quirkless spy, and you damn well know it! This had everything to do with your personal vendetta against the Quirkless!"

Izuku threw open his arms.

"Look around you, Kirishima! Half of our class didn't think you should do something like this! Half of them didn't even think I was a threat to them, but you preyed on the people who were scared, who were terrified for whatever reason, and convinced them to follow you on this! If this was about getting me out of the school, you would have taken this straight to the headmaster! You would have taken it to the security forces – You would have taken it to someone who could have at least confirmed your suspicions, or given them even a single iota of credibility! But you refused to, and cooked up this little idea in your head to have Monoma copy my non-existent Quirk – You wanted a fight! You wanted an excuse, but you wouldn't fight me yourself, because then there'd be no way to prove I was Quirkless – That's why you had Monoma fight me, but let him copy your Quirk! You wanted him to beat me senseless! That's all this was about!"

With every single bit of strength that was in his throat, he yelled,

"You're a fucking hypocrite, Kirishima! You go on, and on, and on, and on about how the Quirkless keep assaulting the Quirked, and the minute you think you've got even a single shred of evidence to use against someone who's Quirkless, you send your attack dogs right after me! What is the difference here?! Tell me!"

The only sound after that was the sound of Izuku's ragged breathing. He had just unleashed half a year's worth of unrepentant fury and repressed anger all out at once. Anger Izuku hadn't even been aware that he had.

He had done what his group of friends had wanted from the beginning. He had called out Kirishima without even the slightest hint of holding back. There were another million things that could be said, but Izuku had said what little needed to be said, with such emotion and vigor, that there really wasn't anything else to say. The nail had been hit squarely on the head.

And it left Izuku exhausted.

This was why he had hidden his Quirk for so long. Because he felt that one day, just maybe, something like this would happen. If such a thing happened, he wanted people to see just how wrong they were. And that was going to need a big exclamation mark at the end, to make his point.

If nothing else, he'd certainly made that. It was logic that made sense only to him… But it was enough.

He heard someone. Something about an infirmary. He heard movement, but didn't turn his head. HE didn't look away from Kirishima, who was just staring wide eyed at him. For the first time, Izuku found himself fully unable to comprehend Kirishima in that moment.

A thought that followed him, as he realized that he was falling to the floor.

And a thought that followed him as everything went black.

* * *

 **Finally, the confrontation that I've been building up this entire story has happened, and I'm…. Kind of satisfied with it. It's a hectic chapter, but I think that kind of adds to the confusion of the situation. It's a difficult balance to get right, but I've had this idea for Kirishima and Monoma from the get-go, and I'm glad to have finally implemented it! Right about now, we're into what I call Act two of The First Generation – Where the elements that are really worth exploring to me will be explored. Get hyped for it!**


	26. Failure

"H…How is he?"

Normally, hospitals weren't placed that Mina liked to be in. They always seemed to have bad memories associated with them. She couldn't think of a single moment in a hospital in which she felt any sort of scrap of even slight happiness whatsoever. They were inherently bad places – Whenever someone ended up in one, it was because something bad had happened to them.

For Mina, those times were, on the plus side, at least incredibly infrequent. She'd been spared of regular visits, only needing to arrive on rare occasions.

On the downside though, those infrequent visits were times of trauma and horror for the pink-skinned girl's life.

The time she had burned her fathers eye off with her Acid.

The time her horn was nearly sawn off.

The time Izuku's Quirk blew his arm into smithereens.

Quirkless people who worked there, they were some of the few that she actually managed to trust though. Their oaths meant that they would heal, no matter who it was that they were tasked to treat. They were usually kind people, even through she had met her share of them who did hold onto their prejudices. But it never stopped them from treating her. She was thankful for that, but that ice-cold feeling that she got when she stepped anywhere near a hospital was still there. And it was probably always going to be there, as they were associated with the memories of her own experiences.

She had the same issue with the Nurses office, even at Yuuei. Chiyo Shuzenji – The nurse in question – Was as Quirked as anyone else in the school, so while that feeling of being with a kindred spirit was there, which one couldn't get in a Quirkless hospital, she couldn't help but almost feel intimidated by the barely four-foot-tall, who knew how old woman.

It was exceedingly rare for someone as old as Chiyo to possess a Quirk of any description. The abnormalities always seemed to target people who were younger. The younger a person was, the more chance that there was of them developing a Quirk, which grew to be less and less as time went on. What the cause of this was wasn't clear at all, but it was merely a fact that came with the superpowers. Chiyo had one, and it was a healing power, which Yuuei found invaluable.

"Well, dearie, there's good news, and there's bad news. Which would you like to hear first?"

The woman was intimidating to Mina, not because she was particularly strict or harsh towards and of the students – Quite the opposite in fact. She was probably one of the more cheerful and optimistic, and she could be rather talkative when she wanted to be. Heck, this was the same woman who just seemed to hand out a handful of gummi sweets whenever she walked by students in the halls.

No, her intimidation came from the fact that this elderly woman was the one who was responsible for the health and well-being of the students. She was the one that could make them feel either much better, or far worse if she felt like it. One wrong word to her, and she could have Izuku suffer for the next fortnight if she so desired. Logic tried to tell her that she was being paranoid, but spending her entire life as a freak of nature, she'd learned to be paranoid. Paranoia was the thing that had managed to get her this far, and it was basically secondary instinct at this point.

"Um…" Mina blinked, glancing at the almost empty room that the nurse was preventing her from entering. Izuku was behind a curtain, out of sight, but only a few meters away. She could have just pushed past Chiyo, but her apprehension of the medical professional prevented her from doing as much. "I… I'll take the good news."

"The good news is, his injuries should all heal up nicely." The elder stated with a reassuring smile. "My Quirk sped up the recovery time. He should be up and about before long as if nothing ever happened to him."

"C-Can I see him?"

"That's the bad news." The nurse glanced over her shoulder. "He's still unconscious right now, and I don't expect him to wake up until tomorrow." She turned her body towards her desk, and adjusted her computer monitor so Mina could see it – It was all a bunch of paragraphs and readings that Mina couldn't make heads nor tails out of. "He's not been taking good care of his body over the last few days. A lack of food, and lack of sleep… I'm going to run a few tests, to see what I can give him. Until then, I'm afraid I can't let you see him, until a few days at the most."

"Days?!"

A slight pause." Well, it'll probably be sooner. Maybe you can help me. I don't suppose you know about any particular ailments, or if he's displayed any particular symptoms of… Well, anything noteworthy?"

"I…. No." She bit on her tongue. A part of her had been tempted to reveal the Nomu incident to the nurse, to explain what had happened, and how it had happened, in order to get her friend the treatment that it seemed that he was going to need to fully recover.

The effects were evident, even though the event was as recent as yesterday. And compared to that, her identity as one of the members of The First Generation was minor and insignificant. But she forced herself to stay quiet, knowing that Izuku would lose his mind if she revealed such a thing.

"I… I think he's been losing sleep lately." She couldn't reveal the truth in its entirety, but nothing was stopping her from leaving bits of the truth. "I… Think he's depressed."

Chiyo sighed. "That's something that I get a lot here. Though I suppose you can't be too surprised when you live the way we do. The way he's been treating his body seems consistent with depression and what comes with it. I'll get him a hold of some anti-depressants, and talk to the Headmaster about some sort of counselling, in case he needs someone to talk to."

"Th-Thank you." Mina bowed.

"Now, now, dearie. There's no need for that." The old woman said with an amused chortle to her voice, before reaching into her pockets. "You run along now, I need to get back to work. I can call for you once he's woken up. Here, have some gummies to calm you down. Take care!"

Protests were about to escape from Mina's throat as she found herself being essentially shooed out of the older woman's office. She had wanted to see Izuku, to see the extent of the damage that was done during his fight, and she still had a bunch of other questions – She wanted to wait with him, to be there with him once he woke up. She wanted to speak up.

But the words never left her mouth, and it wasn't due to being scared of the lady. Mina had faced far, far worse, and if she had to get into a fight with the woman, she would have done – But this time, logic did guide her.

If the nurse needed her space to work, then her presence there was only going to be more problematic, and would cause more issues for a woman who was no doubt already subjected to plenty of stress today. And if she was in the way, then Izuku wasn't going to get the treatment that he needed. Her own desires were far less important than him making a swift and efficient recovery.

"I…. A-Alright." She nodded, and bowed again. "Please let me know once he's awake?"

"Of course I will!" Chiyo beamed. "I'll tell the Head to let you know the minute he's starting to show any promising signs!"

Before the pink girl could even express her thanks, the nurse slid the door shut, and then finally let out a long sigh. The young lady's concern for her friend had been all too clear, and it had made pushing her out of the room without giving her any satisfying answers all the more difficult.

Anyone could recognize the sheer amount of care that the young woman had for her friend. It was clear that the pair of them had been through quite a lot together, and come out stronger as a result. And that had forged a bond between the two of them that wasn't easily broken. She had seen it a great many times before, even before her own Quirk developed, when she worked in a general hospital in Tokyo. Friends and families who seemed to put every single inch of their being into worrying about the welfare of another, even when the situation was out of their control. Worry was the only thing that they could do, and their loved ones deserved that.

If there was one positive thing that one could say about the act of discrimination, it was the solidarity it formed between its victims. People who would have never had anything to do with one another, forced into the same places, and to create bonds and relationships with those people. In the face of abject horror, it was really the only thing that could be done. And those friendships often lasted a lifetime.

Solidarity was the counter to discrimination, and it was a uniting force between all of those who faced the horrors that came from the more socially accepted.

In most cases, anyway.

"…So, how much of that was true?"

Chiyo turned around, and looked at the drawn curtain. The silhouette that was shown on the thin piece of cloth showed her patient, whom had been previously laying down, was now sat up, and looking towards the source of the sounds he'd been listening to. Another sigh escaped her as she walked back towards the only other person in the office with her.

"That was your friend, Midoriya." She said, as she made eye contact with her patient, in a way that a mother would give to a child. In some ways, she often felt like the mother – Or in her case, grandmother - Of the majority of Yuuei, having to fix up their scratches and scrapes at all hours of the day. "She's worried about you."

"Yeah, I know… But like I said. I'm… Not sure I can face her right now."

The older woman sighed. By the very nature of her profession, if her patient had a request that wasn't unreasonable, she had to carry it out. It had been trained into her from the beginning of her career to do everything in her power to make the people under her care as comfortable as possible.

It wasn't uncommon for patients to want to be left alone to their thoughts, which was why she had complied with the request. But she had been doing this job for long enough to figure out what it was that was bothering people. If they were lost in thought, or if they just weren't the social sort.

Or if they were just afraid.

"You can't keep her away forever, you know."

"I… I've only asked you to keep her out of the room for today…"

"I know that look on your face. You'd take advantage and keep her out of here all week if you were going to be in here longer. Luckily for you, you won't be." She said nonchalantly, like she wasn't even acknowledging the fact that she had casually read Izuku like he was an open book. Instead, looking at her clipboard, she read some of the notes that she had taken. "Either way, you're going to be pleased to hear that the majority of your injuries healed up just fine. My Quirk managed to heal up most of your injuries to back before your pointless fight with Monoma."

Izuku wouldn't have guessed that with how sluggish he felt, and how much his muscles still ached. Still, a word stood out to him. "Most?"

Nodding, Chiyo made her way towards her desk, where she procured a hand mirror. She took a look back towards Izuku, and hesitated for just a moment. She'd seen plenty of injuries before, especially on Quirked people in the last few years. Burns, bruises, cuts and broken bones. Lots of injuries, she had learned, she was capable of healing with her Recovery Quirk, and made the effort to heal everything that she could.

The poor boy had enough injuries all across his body – Scars around his wrists, a burn along his upper arm, and bruises nearly everywhere. To add another one to that list… It just didn't feel right.

Izuku could see the look that she was giving him. "I-Is something wrong?"

"I… Am afraid that I wasn't able to heal all of your injuries." She returned to his bedside, and held out the mirror for him.

It was a scar. Not an especially large one, but its presence was going to be obvious enough to anyone who ever looked him in the face. The scar was horizontal, leaning to the side, to make it slightly diagonal, and was located roughly about three-fourths of the way around his forehead, so it rested above his right eye. For the most part, it looked like a mostly clear-cut. Almost a straight line, with only slight wavering towards the end as it pointed towards his nose. It ran above his eyebrow, ending just before it passed the small section of eye-protective hair.

For a moment, Izuku blinked, uncertain of what he was looking at. Like he couldn't quite place where the scar had come from. It took him a few moments to recall.

His headbutt against Kirishima.

"…Oh…" He quietly said, running his fingers over the damaged skin.

Chiyo felt her own expression mirror that of her patients; A mixture of sadness and regret. She wished that there had been something that she could have done for the injury, but there wasn't. Recovery healed injuries, and repaired the damage done to the body, but it wasn't capable of repairing the marks left by those injuries. At least not all the time. Sometimes it felt like it was just a 50-50 chance to heal all the scars as well as all the major injuries. Her Quirk automatically focused on the parts of the body that were the most in danger.

In Izuku's case, that was the blunt force trauma that he'd suffered. Hardening was an imperviously powerful hand-to-hand ability, in its current state. It was the equivalent of having someone hit one's head with a rock, the effects of which could be even more dangerous than those of a stab wound. Recovery managed to repair the damage, and reverse the trauma. But it didn't commit as much of itself to healing the scar.

"…Figures." Izuku muttered with a small sigh. "I got through Monoma's attacks, and I come out of it fine, but Kirishima? He's the one who gives me a scar?" He honestly managed to gently laugh at the irony of it all. "Just my luck."

"You shouldn't have been getting into fights like that at all." Scolded the older woman. "That's not what the range buildings are for."

"No. They're just there for people to spy on us while we use our Quirks." Izuku pointed out flatly. He laughter had been bitter, and that set the mood. He wasn't really in the mood to beat around the bush.

No denial came from Chiyo, but she didn't stop talking. "What even was that fight about? I've seen boys your age getting into scrapes plenty of times, but I've never seen such injuries from anything other than a major disagreement."

"I… I'd rather not talk about it." The black-haired boy admitted, his voice growing quieter with every word.

The fight had been stupid, and he knew that now that he was looking back on it. Why he had felt the need to cause such a scene over something that could have been solved by just a moments display of Full Cowling, he wasn't sure. It was true that he had wanted the shock of him possessing a Quirk to be enough to show Kirishima how baseless a lot of his accusations were, and how not everything was as clear cut as he made them out to be… But causing a big fight like that? Or at the very least, encouraging it?

What had he been thinking?

Regret wasn't present – It was done now, and frankly, all the anger that he'd been storing deep within himself was now out of system. He felt… Better in a way. But he questioned the logic of his yesterday self.

Had he seriously been prepared to risk his friend's safety just to prove a point? What kind of a person did that make him?

Chiyo decided not to pry into the clearly troubled boys mind, and went over her list once more. "I see. Well, aside from that, my Recovery Quirk healed everything except your previous scars. Although, I think you'll be surprised to hear that the blunt force trauma wasn't the cause of your collapse."

Izuku gulped. "It wasn't?" Was there more bad news he needed to prepare for?

"No. That would be fatigue." Izuku sighed, feeling his shoulders drop as his body relaxed. "The damage your body took just accentuated that. Plus, I'm beginning to suspect that your lack of sleep is starting to affect your behaviour. Several people have told me that you haven't been acting as normal, and I'm not prepared to risk letting you out until I know you've made a recovery. I'm keeping you here at least until tomorrow morning. You need to get some rest. I'm also concerned about your mental well-being, so I'm going to recommend a counsellor to Toshinori…"

She began to talk about what medicines she was going to supply him with to help him sleep, and something about another brand that was supposed to help with… Something else. He had sort of tuned out about halfway through her instructions, laying back against the bed with a very long, very slow, yet very quiet sigh.

He wondered what was going on outside the walls of this office he found himself cooped up in. There couldn't be any doubt by now that the entire school would know about his fight with Monoma and Kirishima. The general reaction was something he wasn't sure that he was going to like or not. Were people happy, or were they now terrified of him?

What did his friends think of what he had done? What was the general consensus?

What about Toshinori? What about the teachers?

That hadn't even been something that he'd considered in the heat of the moment. Was he going to be punished for what he'd done? He may not have started the fight, no, but it was difficult to claim innocent when one person had nearly every bone in his arm powderized, and a series of holes through every training range in the line-up.

He didn't start the fight, but did nothing to discourage it either…

….Oh, who was he kidding. He was the one who was responsible for the fight. All Kirishima and Monoma were going to do was copy his Quirk. He was the one who suggested a fight.

He was at responsible for what had happened.

And even if he hadn't been, there was still the issue of Eri and his refusal to turn her over to the orphanage.

Orphanage… He paused for a moment. Looking up at the tiled patterns on the ceiling, he wondered – Why did he call it an orphanage? That's not what it was and everyone who saw it knew damn well that it wasn't an orphanage. No Quirked children were going to be adopted by Quirkless families, and even if they were, such events would be so exceedingly rare that it wouldn't even be worth mentioning. No stable home life could be confirmed either. And it was so far away from other Quirked adolescents – Older students, who had the benefit of experience…. Or anyone else with Quirks, for that matter. They virtually had no ability to communicate with them at all.

What sort of an orphanage didn't have communication with a school? What sort of orphanage was an entire train ride away from the nearest school? It went well beyond incompetency at city planning. Anyone with an IQ over ten could point that out.

It had been a deliberate choice. He was certain of that beyond all reason. So, why was he calling it an orphanage?

An internment building would be more accurate. That was what It was. It was just short of being a prison.

It was barely any different to Yuuei.

Being certain was something Izuku simply wasn't used to being. Uncertainty was how he allowed himself to account for all possibilities. It was what kept his brain working, and let him stay one step ahead of his opponents.

But he'd never felt more certain about his plans here. He knew that it was going to cause a lot of issues, both for Yuuei, and the Quirked in general, but he was certain beyond all reason that once they marched through those tough times, and waded through the Quirkless response, that they were going to end up in a far better position than they were now. Realistically, things weren't going to get much worse, short of an active campaign of discrimination.

He was confident. More certain about this than ever before.

And he wasn't going to apologize for it either.

He knew what was going to happen, and he didn't hold it against anyone but himself. Things had gone this far because he had allowed them to, so he was the one at fault. And he'd broken one major rule too many.

Toshinori wouldn't be able to protect him anymore.

And that was fine.

He would admit to himself that he was concerned about his friends. About the members of The First Generation. They weren't as certain about the plan as he was – Katsuki and Uraraka didn't even know what it was. How would they react to all of this?

How would they all react when they saw him again?

"…Midoriya."

The voice that Izuku had been keeping an ear open for finally arrived. For a moment, he closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath. He'd known that his mentor would arrive sooner or later, but he certainly hadn't been looking forward to it.

Letting out his held breath, he opened his eyes, and faced Toshinori. "….Hello, sir."

There was an expression on the older mans face that Izuku had no idea how to identify. There seemed to be a bit of everything in there. Relief, concern, anger, confusion, worry, fear, every emotion that one could expect to see in someone who wound up in a nurse's office after receiving the call. Concern was probably the most prominent thing present for him, even though that was muddied up in the confusion and disappointment.

His lips were straight. There was no frown, nor smile. Just a plain old face of neutral expression, and one that couldn't make up its mind which way it wanted to face more. The blue glints that made up his irises seemed darker than usual. His eyes in general seemed to be darker than usual. There was no sign of that glint that Toshinori was famous for having. That optimistic spark.

Probably because his reason for that optimism was laying in a bed after getting into a needless fight.

The older man just looked at his protégé, unsure where to even begin. "… Midoriya, I… How're you feeling?"

"…All things considered, I think I'm okay." He answered honestly.

"I just spoke with Chiyo. She told me Monoma was in here earlier."

Had he? "…I…. Must have been asleep. I haven't seen him."

"You rendered him with a shattered arm, and slammed his head into the ground. He was unconscious. I'm not surprised she decided to treat him first."

There wasn't even a trace of anger in his voice. Just matter-of-fact statements about what had happened. Almost like he struggled to believe it himself.

Then again, Izuku could hardly believe that he'd done it himself either. There wasn't any regret in his mind about what he had done – Not in the least. He was frankly beyond the point of caring about how much he'd hurt Monoma or Kirishima. He wasn't even certain if he was still angry with them. Their names just meant very little to him now.

"…How is he?" He asked, curious.

"He's returned to his dorm. He's being suspended from classes for the time being, to recover. As has Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, and everyone else involved with what happened."

"And me?"

"…I don't know what to say." Toshinori spoke with a sigh, bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "My boy, I don't…" His eyes seemed to look past his finger and his thumb, and towards his protégé. "Where do I even begin?... It was bad enough that you got involved with a fight... But what do you expect me to do with this Eri girl?"

That of course, was going to be Toshinori's primary concern. The fight was less important – That was an internal affair for Yuuei, and no one was really going to press charges against the students. The Quirkless didn't care enough, and there wasn't even really any reason to report the fight to any officials. It could be solved inside the walls, without any further issue.

What was going to be an issue was the fact Eri was not where she was supposed to be. And that was dangerous.

Yuuei had been made to be held accountable for the child. The police were afraid of her. They knew she had a Quirk, but didn't have even the first clue what it was, or what it could do. It had been a deliberate, conscious choice to assign her to the school, just in the hopes of some kind of slip up or incident that could then be pinned onto Yuuei.

Leaving her in the hands of people who looked after Quirked children for a living…. It made sense, and would probably help the young girl develop some social skills that she sorely lacked. And with luck, her Quirk would finally come to light.

Now, Yuuei was left with failed in its assignment. And the punishment was going to end up being harsh – There wasn't any doubt about that.

"I couldn't leave her there." Izuku stated. To him, it didn't feel like a choice that he made, but rather, something that he had no choice but to do.

"I understand how you feel, my boy, you know I do but you must be aware of how much trouble this is going to get Yuuei in!"

Yuuei was home to over a thousand Quirked students from all over the country – Many of whom had come to avoid the discrimination that plagued the rest of the country. Even if they were trapped in a small, lenient prison, they were still mostly safe. The Quirkless generally left them alone when they were on their side of the wall. It was what the people there wanted. Safety. Safety which couldn't be guaranteed.

What kept people from accepting one another, a lot of the time, was fear. The fear of the unknown, the fear of what was different. It was a survival instinct that had kept Humanity alive for centuries.

Thousands of years ago though, that sort of instinct was essential, for Humanity wasn't the hunters, but the hunted.

Every species that feasted on flesh was out to get the early Humans, and so they developed the senses and the instincts to flee from anything that wasn't one of them. It was a skittish reaction for a weak species to avoid vastly more dangerous predators. And it was that instinct that had helped them survive to the current age. Yet now, it was an instinct that was crippling the world. Crippling the people. Crippling Earth.

It was this instinct that made the Quirkless fear those with Quirks, and that fear turned to violence and hatred. And likewise, the Quirked grew to fear the Quirkless, and that turned into hate. It was a never-ending cycle of fear and hate that was keeping these motions going.

No one wanted to live in fear. That was why so many Quirked students willingly joined Yuuei, even if it was just a way to contain them. They could live there without fearing an attack of assault on their lives. They could be surrounded by people like them.

They could live.

…And Izuku had put that in danger. For one girl.

"… There're fifty-four of them there." He said. His gaze ended up going blank, as he looked straight ahead, staring at a wall with no features on it. "Fifty-four kids, all under the age of eleven are there right now. And they're all crammed into such a small place. It's tiny, and cramped, but there's nowhere else they can go. They can't even go outside anymore without the chance of someone throwing a rock at them. And for what?..."

Bikes, left tossed aside without care in what was supposed to be play space outside. Fences peeling white paint, every other plank kicked in. Spray paint and slanderous terms, and derogatory words coated everywhere. The sight had bothered him.

Deeply.

It was one thing for those at Yuuei to be targeted – They were teenagers. Capable of putting plots together if they wanted to. They could hurt people.

But these were kids. Kids who just wanted to be left alone. "Fuyumi – Todoroki's sister – She can't even go out without the Quirkless harassing her. She has a Quirk too. Her girlfriend too, and she has to rely on her to get anyone any food. And there's never enough. How can there be? They barely have anything as it is, how are they going to get enough to feed fifty-four children, plus themselves? The whole place was covered in graffiti…

He looked at his mentor. And the pain that was in his eyes was clear.

"And I have to make it fifty-five? I have to send someone else into that sort of place? Make things even harder for them?... I…. I can't do it. I won't do it. I won't send her there… You always told me to help one person at a time… But… I can't do that anymore."

Toshinori understood his feelings, his frustration, oh so clearly. Izuku wasn't the kind of person to preach change, but sit around and do nothing about it. He was active, and did everything in his power to help, no matter how small it was. So many people would call him an idealist, or naïve. And there might have been some truth to that, but he never let it stop him from doing the right thing. Even when the right thing was also the most dangerous thing that he could do. This was the same kid who brought the idea of Heroism alive, manifesting the objects of the Quirkless' fears, and using them to defend them from Quirked who would use their powers against them. And vice versa.

No matter the danger, he was the type who would face it head on. Because of his heart, and how much he cared. It would override his head, and would make him fight against the tide of the world it he had to.

In a way, he agreed with what he'd done. Leaving Eri in such a place wasn't a good idea. If he had had his own way, Toshinori would have made some kind of arrangements for the child to remain at Yuuei, around people who would look after her and protect her. What she needed was guidance, and people who would care. And she wasn't going to get that surrounded by children who were just as scared and unsure about themselves as she was.

Izuku had done the right thing. Deep down, Toshinori knew that. And he was proud. Proud that his student wasn't allowing his fears about retaliation override his desire to do the right thing.

Heroism was a concept that he hadn't had a lot of faith in. It made a certain kind of sense, but a lot of things made sense when put onto paper, and fell apart when put into action, because of terrible implementation, or because of the people behind it, not giving their all to what they were doing. Heroism was no easy sell either. It was dangerous, and anyone with a single iota of sense would pretend that it was anything but. One of the major reasons Toshinori had even allowed Izuku to commit to it in the first place?

Because he knew the boy would go out and do something just as dangerous anyway.

And he'd sold it to him.

They weren't particularly accepted by the Quirkless population, at least not right now – But what they represented was something that those who were bestowed these powers needed more than anything in the world right now.

Hope. A feeling of self-worth.

Those effects could be seen by just walking around Yuuei. Talk of The First Generation was often on someone's lips, talking about how incredible it is that people managed to commit themselves to helping people, even in the face of a world that held them in nothing but contempt. They were inspiring people, making them feel better about themselves for having these powers.

And unlike the rest of the school, Toshinori understood Izuku's lax attitude, and his depression. The broadcasts were something he watched while his student was away – And he watched as the Hero Maverick was forced to plunge a knife into an enemies skull.

There was a part of the older man that just wanted to hug his student, and tell him that he had done the best job that he could do.

But instead, all he did was place a hand on his protégé's shoulder, and offer a small smile of compassion and empathy. If Izuku wanted to talk about it, he would come to him, or whoever else he was comfortable with. More pressure was the last thing he needed. "… I understand. I really do, my boy… But, I don't know what we're going to do here. The Quirkless will want to know where this Eri girl is."

"…When we were there, I spoke with Todoroki's sister and Takeyama." Izuku said. "…They've agreed to say that they did receive Eri. That should keep the official channels off of us."

Toshinori's eyes opened up. "You've convinced them to lie to the authorities?"

The teenager nodded. "I've talked to them… And they're willing to risk it for us."

"Why would they do that?"

"I've promised them… Something. It's… Better if you don't know."

It wasn't an answer that did much to reassure his mentor. Toshinori sighed once again. He didn't regret giving Izuku One For All. He was a brave user of the power, and one that he wished had been born far, far sooner than he was. Maybe, if the world had had more people like Izuku, who were willing to stand up and make a stand of some kind, the current Quirked-Quirkless crisis wouldn't ever have gotten so bad. Perhaps if more people had risen up and fought against the injustices being lashed out on a daily basis, the entire world would be at peace by now. But that didn't mean that sometimes, Toshinori wasn't left confused and concerned by the actions his successor took.

He hated his current position – Torn between the care and love that he held for his pupil, and his position as the headmaster of over a thousand students. His loyalties were conflicted in the worst possible way. Between one person he knew so incredibly well and had grown to care for, for years, and the many whom he didn't know all that well, but needed him there, and the security that his school offered.

And there didn't seem to be a way to do both anymore.

"…Midoriya, what am I supposed to do here?"

"…You know what you need to." Izuku answered plainly. There wasn't any point in beating around the bush, in pretending that there was some way around it.

There wasn't. Yuuei couldn't look after him anymore. In the face of their dreams of a Quirkless student integrating with the Quirked, all that had happened was that violence had erupted within the school. The bridge had been knocked down by those who weren't ready for it to be built yet. And there wasn't anything that they could do to rebuild it.

Not in the current climate.

Right now, the biggest concern was one of safety. They needed to ensure that as many people as possible would be okay, and unaffected by what Izuku had planned. And there was only one way to keep the rest of Yuuei disassociated with the Quirkless-born teenager.

And that was him being disassociated with Yuuei on a fundamental level.

It required him to be expelled.

"Midoriya, I can't – "

"If I get found out, and Yuuei is found out to still be looking after me, then that makes you accountable. And that makes Yuuei accountable… I don't want anyone who isn't involved to be blamed for what I do."

The needs of the many needed to be considered. While it wasn't a philosophy that Izuku implemented on others, it was one he was prepared to accept the judgement of in this situation.

Between Fuyumi lying about having received Eri, and Izuku no longer being associated with Yuuei, the school would be able to wash its hands of the situation and claim to know nothing about it. The police probably wouldn't think twice about the situation, and the authorities would be satisfied that the job was done. Hiding Eri would be Izuku's responsibility, and the responsibility of anyone who continued to stand with him – But the school wouldn't be at risk.

What he was going to do was going to be difficult – But he wouldn't be alone if it went to plan. And his plan was going to work out. Somehow, he just knew it.

He tried to offer a smile. "You're got a lot of people here who need the security Yuuei offers." Those who had suffered at the hands of the Quirkless needed Yuuei. "I'm genetically Quirkless. Without my uniform, people will just let me go about my business." Toe tests wouldn't affect him. And if he was recognized, all he would need to do it dye his hair, or cut it, and it would probably be enough to make people look the other way. "I'll be okay. You know that."

He was right, and Toshinori knew that he was right. It didn't mean that he had to like it, but he knew that his pupil was right. That didn't make it any easier. This was his student – Expelling him from Yuuei, even if it was to protect the many… It just wasn't right.

Was there really a right choice to make here? There weren't any loopholes that he could think of – Izuku had thought about this clearly. He probably would have suggested this before he wound up in the nurse's office, wouldn't he?

This was all in response to Eri. He was prepared to face the consequences for that long before he fought Monoma and Kirishima.

"…Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"I promise. Besides – I don't plan on going far."

A sigh escaped Toshinori's lips, but he nodded in understanding. Really, what more was there that he could do, aside from trust that his student did have a plan of some kind?

The job of a mentor was to teach their pupil everything that they knew, so they could go out and try to be better than they had been.

Going to Yuuei… It had been a dream for Izuku. Part of his dream to end this pointless bickering between the Quirked and the Quirkless, and Toshinori hadn't done anything to dissuade him from that path. In fact, he had encouraged it.

Now though, Izuku was ready to make the next step, even if it meant giving up what he had now.

Prior pride was still there. But now, it was bittersweet.

"…Izuku Midoriya." He spoke formally, almost like he was a solider on ceremony. "In light of your actions, involving a fight with a classmates, and the failure to follow the rules of the school… I'm left with no choice but to expel you from Yuuei High." Once the words hit Izuku's ears, even though he was prepared for them, it felt like a knife to the heart. "You'll have until the end of the week to collect your belongings and move them to your residency."

With that, Izuku laid back in his bed, and let out a long sigh.

It was for the best. And it was Izuku's choice to leave – Expulsion was really just a formality they had to go through so Yuuei could claim disownment of anything Izuku did. It was the right choice, and he knew it.

But it still hurt. In a way, it felt like failure. His original goal, his dream of helping to unify those who wound up in Yuuei, had failed spectacularly.

It hurt. It really did.

And as much as he would have liked to mourn the loss of his place at Yuuei… He didn't have the time.

Now, he had to figure out how he was going to build an orphanage.

* * *

 **This feels a bit more like a calming down chapter than anything, but I feel I also put a lot of information into this – But I'm very glad that I got everything in. I hope the build up was worth it. And I do wonder how many of you predicted that I'd go down this route. I'm pretty proud of what I've got planned up next, and I think quite a lot of you all will be too.**

 **First Generations story is finally starting to kick off : )**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time – See ya!**


	27. Broken Boy

Frankly, Izuku knew next to nothing about construction until a couple of days ago. There had always been a part of him that found it fascinating in a weirdly satisfying way. There was something about watching buildings being made, about watching as all the materials came together, and how co-operation between many peoples lead to the development of homes, places to live, and how so many of those all individually came together, to build a village, then a town, and then a city. It was like watching a civilization build itself from the ground up. And as technology improved, the process became faster, and so much more impressive the results. 3D printers and drones assisted in repair work and even make buildings. Enormous skyscrapers that could be seen from anywhere in a city. Fantastic marvels of architecture and engineering. Monuments, that came to represent and entire nation.

It was all fascinating. To this day, Izuku would go out of his way to search up news on construction works worldwide. Regardless of nation, he liked to just see what the future held. It helped keep his optimism alive, to see what there was going to be to look forward to, and reminded him to do everything that he could to keep going, and keep alive. Of course, many projects had been put on hold, due to the advent of Quirks, but there were a few still going ahead.

Izuku couldn't help but wonder – How many more mega-cities would be benefited by Quirks? How many of the conceptualized hovering cities and water-faring towns could be made a reality?

How many aspects of architecture and society would be assisted by Quirks that had useful properties in that area? Telekinesis, Zero Gravity and Strength Enhancement to move heavy objects, Cement to lay the outlines of buildings, and Weld to attach things to one another Creation could be used to make all the materials that a construction worker would ever need. Demolition would be easier, and better for the environment with Quirks like Explosion, Vines, Hardening and Half-Cold-Half-Hot. And Copy could be one of the most versatile Quirks, acting as double-duty for whatever was needed at the time.

And that was just an example of one job that could be assisted by Quirks. And even that didn't even take into consideration the regular able-bodyness of a person, even without their Quirk handy.

 _And_ _that_ , that was all the design possibilities conceptualized before Quirks even developed! Who knew what was now possible with these supernatural abilities?!

It was one of the many things Izuku liked to think about when he considered the idea of a world that accepted Quirks as a part of their society. Quirkless and Quirked builders, using their various talents together to make something bigger and more impressive than anything that they could achieve alone. The amount of money, labour, and restriction that would simply be removed was immense, and made him wonder why it wasn't just the norm worldwide.

Then he remembered the answer. Fear and prejudice.

No doubt money was somehow involved, but right now, that wasn't the primary issue. The issue was that the population feared, and the vast majority refused, to do work alongside the Quirked, even in spite of its massive advantages. There were still unknown variables, and those included the unbridled and unrestricted fear of those who didn't understand those with Quirks.

Izuku thought about all of this with a grunt, as he attacked the ground underneath him with a shovel, trying to dig out as much dirt as he could.

He had been at this for two days now, trying to dig out a foundation for the orphanage he planned to build. He wasn't even halfway done, and as he looked out at the plot of land he had dug out, he couldn't help but feel exhausted. He had known that building an orphanage for over fifty children wasn't going to be an easy task – He knew that it was going to be a difficult task, but he was beginning to think that he had vastly underestimated it. His expulsion from Yuuei permitted him a week to get through everything he needed to do before he had to evacuate his room, and he was becoming increasingly worried that he'd have to return to his mothers' home in order to have a place to live. He didn't want to leave the area around Yuuei, but at this rate, he wasn't going to have a choice.

"I still say," Katsuki said irritated, throwing another load of dirt onto the pile, "That you let me go and beat some sense into the Head."

"He's already explained, Katsuki." Uraraka said, with a sigh. "This was all Deku's choice."

"Then let me beat sense into both of them. Deku for having this stupid fucking idea, and the Head for fucking going along with it."

It went without saying that the rest of Izuku's friends had been… To say the least, mortified by what he had told them. That he was being expelled in order to protect the thinly disguised prison from legal retribution for his actions regarding Eri. That he was the one who prompted the Head to do it. About how he wanted to create this orphanage right cross from the school, and to get it done within a week. A mixture of horror at the situation, and disbelief at the unrealistic goal Izuku had set out for himself. None of them were sure which of them was more horrifying.

Yuuei had been his dream since it was first announced. He wanted to go there, to live alongside the Quirked, to try to build the bridges of unity. He threw every single chance he had at living a normal life out the window when he decided to accept a Quirk. Even if he was able to hide his powers from the rest of the population, his impulsive need to help those who were in danger prevented him from sitting on the side-lines, and with the power to help those in his hands…

But then there was this construction project he'd decided needed to be done. An entire building, capable of hosting over fifty children, plus two adult women to care for them, and a room for himself which he was now going to need… Izuku's sanity was something that had been called into question about a hundred times that day alone.

And as the days went past, no one was getting more convinced that Izuku was okay.

Even Mina and Katsuki, who, even more than anyone else, wanted to believe that Izuku was okay, weren't convinced anymore. No matter how they tried to rationalise it. No matter how they tried to look at it.

An entire orphanage in five days, when they didn't even have an outline dug out yet?

But… What could they do?

Technically expelled, they couldn't take him to see the nurse, or a doctor, and have his psyche checked out. And even if they could, they were convinced that it had something to do with the Vigilante Hero stuff that had been going on. Every night, Izuku still insisted on going out, if only to patrol. It was the only break so far that he'd taken from the construction project. What were they supposed to say to the doctors about that? They couldn't even mention it if they didn't all want to end up in jail. Compulsory attendance as Yuuei was, they did still possess the right to expel students who were deemed a danger to those around them – Another example of the Quirkless' benevolent gift of freedom to the Quirked school. Realistically, anyone who was expelled from Yuuei would end up arrested, most likely. If they were unstable enough to be around their fellow Quirked, the Quirkless weren't going to trust them for a second. And because of that, they couldn't take him to see anyone in the city either.

It made Mina shiver. He hadn't slept since he woke up, and the closest thing to rest he got right now was leaping from building to building, going on Hero patrol. She just thanked the universe that there wasn't any trouble that needed The First Generation on the case. In his state, Mina didn't know how much of a danger he could be. To both himself, and others. But with no other option…

All they could do was try to help him with what he wanted to do. For now. Even though they were worried sick about him.

"Fuckin' Yuuei." Katsuki muttered, stabbing his shovel into the dirt again. "Fuckin' Quirkless." He swore, as he tossed the dirt into the pile. "Fuckin' Head." He stabbed the dirt again. "Fuckin' laws." More added to the piles. "Fuckin' Deku." The dirt again. "Fuckin' Deku, taking advantage of their fuckin' laws for his fuckin' bullshit."

He was angry, and there wasn't a single part of anyone there who doubted it. He'd made his feelings so abundantly known that they were impossible to ignore.

But they knew he wasn't angry with Izuku. Not at all.

The truth was, he was terrified for him. He was angry for him. At what had happened to him. It wasn't fair.

None of this was fair.

He had ranted to Mina and Uraraka about it over the past two nights, because he found himself unable to rant to Izuku without causing him even more stress. The two girls had sat there, and listened to the blond as he slagged off everything that was happening, and everyone involved. The Villains they ran into. The Nomu. Kirishima. Monoma. The entire Quirkless society. The Headmaster. Yuuei. Just everything. Everything that seemed to be against them. Against Izuku.

While Katsuki was a lot more emotional an individual than most pegged him as, he didn't have the ability to process them like the others. He'd been angry, sad and scared for so long, he'd forgotten how to be anything else.

And Mina agreed.

"Stupid laws." She muttered. "Stupid Quirkless… Stupid Yuuei…" They weren't quite as vicious as Katsuki's remarks, but the same feeling was there. She was fed up and frustrated too.

She looked up, and stood up, just to get a breath of cooler air. Her eyes caught glimpses of colour and movement to her side. Observers. Students from Yuuei who had taken to just watching the five students go at their project, never coming too close, but coming close enough to see what they were doing.

School had been weird since Izuku's run in with Kirishima and Monoma. Students steered clear of Izuku's normal group, not wanting to get in their way in even the slightest manner. Kirishima and Monoma hadn't been seen since the incident, and Mina recalled Jirou leaving the 1A dorms, and leaving for who knew where. The entire landscape of the school had been shifted ever since the fight. No one even seemed to have the nerve to talk to her.

They felt guilt. Remorse. And feared a response. Todoroki was the one to make those observations, and Mina couldn't help but realize how right he was.

When they realized that they were wrong, the pink girl had always had images of the rest of the school whom had treated Izuku like he was some sort of criminal to start grovelling and asking forgiveness. She'd expected them to actually treat him like he was some kind of human being. She expected… Things to be different. To change for him.

Instead, they were all afraid of him still. Just for different reasons.

She sighed. Katsuki really was right. None of this was fair. None of it was right.

* * *

Izuku wasn't a fool. He'd be the first to admit that he wasn't in a great place right now, but he wasn't irrational. As he looked at the, quite frankly, huge amount of land he was going to need prepare to even begin working on this building, he knew his goal wasn't realistic.

For Gods sake, they didn't even have any bricks to build the thing yet. To actually get hold of them, he was probably going to have to ask Toshinori, and doing that didn't feel right, given his expulsion. It would be hard to defend such an action if he were asked to explain it to anyone with more authority than him. And they didn't have tools. And even if they did… He didn't know if they could put a building big enough together in five days.

And then there were things like plumbing and water. Only now was he even considering that. What were they supposed to do, live off bottled water? Places in the world still had no choice but to, and survived, but that didn't make it alright. That wasn't what he wanted this place to be like.

He supposed Todoroki's ice and heat abilities to generate ice, and then melt it into water… But that felt like it would be unfair to him. Was he supposed to just stay behind and essentially be the orphanages faucet while the others did things? Maybe he'd get lucky, and someone with a water Quirk of some kind would be amongst the kids…

If they were ever even able to come here.

The blacked haired boy let out a heavy sigh as he threw more dirt aside. This was unrealistic. He knew it…

Nothing else was enough though.

One person at a time. That had been what he and Toshinori had said when they started their crusade to help the Quirked. That had been what Izuku had tried to do with The First Generation, and everything that he'd done before then. He tried to help everyone who he could, one person at a time. No one person could fix everything. It wasn't possible. It needed to be an effort by a large group. That was how change would evolve and take over. It was why Izuku had lived by that philosophy – Just helping where he could.

It wasn't enough though. Not now.

Not after what he'd done.

This wouldn't even come close. Not at all. Not even close to making things right in any sense of the word, but it was the very, very least he could do. He couldn't think about anything else. He just had to do this…

…And he was going to fail. Because there wasn't enough time. Because he didn't have enough material. Because…

His shovel fell to the ground, and he sat beside it. He just... He needed a minute. To just clear his head. To think. Maybe…

…He didn't know. He just did not know.

"U-Uh, Deku?!" Uraraka's voice. He looked up at her, and saw her apprehensive expression.

Behind her, Mina shared a similar look. And besides her, Katsuki just looked like he was about to explode.

He turned around. And there stood Kirishima.

As well as Yaoyorozu, and Kaminari. Behind them was Mineta. The standout was Kirishima though. Before this, Izuku had only ever seen him with his hair spiked up, almost akin to a rock, and had begun to assume that his hair was naturally like that, as an effect of his Hardening Quirk. Now though, it was softer, like regular hair, which was straight, and long, covering up most of his eyes. It took the green-eyed boy a moment to actually recognize him.

Not a single one of their expressions could be read. Izuku couldn't even begin to pick apart the small details of their faces. They looked… Haunted, almost. That was the only word Izuku could even begin to use.

What scared Izuku the most was just how apathetic he was to the sight of them all. He stood up, in case he needed to move, but he only said one word to them, looking at them from the corner of his eye.

"What."

His word, spoken heavily like a club, made Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, and Mineta all flinch. Its flatline nature made Mina and Uraraka flinch as well, not used to such a…. Response from him. Todoroki just blinked. He hadn't been there for the fight, but he heard about it in vivid detail every day since. Katsuki smirked, while the only person whom showed no emotion whatsoever was Kirishima.

His hands were balled up into fists. And they were shaking.

His eyes fell completely behind his hair.

Izuku blinked. He didn't like feeling apathetic, or if someone squinted, outright hatred, for people, but in this case, he couldn't help it. No matter how much he didn't want to, what had happened between him and this group just… Soiled every positive opinion that he may have ever had about any one of them.

It wasn't right, but he couldn't help it. Stood in front of him were four people he held in nothing but contempt. People who he had tried to do what he could to be accommodating, and understood their distrust. People whom he had actually fought next to, when the bikers came. People whom pretended that things were different, all the while spreading and recruiting more and more people into their way of thinking, because they couldn't even begin to consider the possibility that they were wrong.

And if that had been all, it would have been disappointing, but Izuku could have understood. But they took it a step further. They broke into his room. Attacked his friends. And attacked him.

No. No one had to squint to see it.

He hated all of them.

"What do you want." He repeated, forming a fist of his own. He wasn't sure why. Maybe because deep down, he still expected a fight, and it made him feel better.

"…"

"Do I need to throw you fuckers out of here?" Katsuki questioned, slamming his fist into an explosion his left hand generated, a smirk on his face the whole time. "Go on. Just give me the excuse."

Words didn't follow.

Action did.

Kirishima bowed.

And then words followed. Quiet, barely even audible words.

"…I'm… I didn't… I wanted to – "

"If you're here to apologize I suggest you just fuck off now." Katsuki stated flatly, walking towards his friend's side, glaring at Kirishima the entire time. "The last time you tried to 'Bury the hatchet' with us, you went behind our backs and set up your little stunt the other day."

"We… We were in the wrong." Yaoyorozu said, her own voice quiet, soft, and remorseful. "We… Treated you with suspicion. Judged Midoriya because he was Quirkless… And I… We wanted to apologize."

"Saying that you were in the wrong is putting it lightly." Mina pointed out, feeling her grip on her shovel tighten.

"We - We're trying to own up here." Kaminari said.

"Like fuck you are." Katsuki growled, and glared at the Electrification Quirk user, before sweeping his vision from him, to the apprehensive Yaoyorozu, the still-bowing Kirishima, and the frankly terrified Mineta. "You're not here for that and you all fucking know 're not here to own up, and you're not here to make everything better. You're here because you wanna feel better about yourselves for fucking up so badly – And that's giving you the benefit of the doubt the fucking Head didn't throw you out until you did."

It was frank, and it was vicious – And for all the group knew, it was true. Nearly all of them had been thinking it in one way or another.

Because they couldn't trust these four. Not anymore. Even if their intentions were pure… It didn't change what had happened.

"I agree."

Of everyone there, Izuku was probably the most known for being forgiving. This was the same person who had already forgiven Kirishima and Yaoyorozu previously for their attitudes towards him earlier in the year. He was a forgiving person by nature, always willing to give the benefit of the doubt, and listen to explanations. He didn't hold grudges. He had a massive burn on his arm from Todoroki that was a testament to that.

If anyone was going to offer forgiveness – If anyone even had the right to offer that forgiveness – It would be Izuku.

Which was why hearing him say that felt like a shard of glass to the heart, no matter who heard it.

"I can't tell if this is another trick, or if you're serious, so for all I know, Kacchan's right." He said, coldly. "If you get my forgiveness, you think that it'll make everything better, and that you're off the hook, and that what happened was okay."

His teeth gritted.

"Well it's not. And you don't get my forgiveness. Not this time."

No effort was made to even try to hide the hurt on their faces. Kaminari and Mineta looked completely defeated, while Yaoyorozu just looked hurt. As Kirishima stood upright again, his face remained fixated on the floor. His hands trembled, no longer fists.

"This time, you'll earn it."

Upon hearing that, Kirishima finally showed his face again, looking at the formerly Quirkless boy he'd caused so much trouble for, only to find a shovel being thrown in his direction. He quickly caught it, and then looked at what was in his hands, then back to Izuku, who looked at him with a glare the whole time.

"We're digging out a foundation. If you want to prove that you actually are sorry, then help us out. We're running behind as is." As Izuku spoke, he climbed out of the dig-out, and walked past the group, not even giving them another look as he pocketed his hands into his jacket and began to walk away. "I'm gonna get some water."

For a moment, the newly arrived group all just kind of stood there, and looked at the four secret Heroes in stunned silence. Kirishima blinked, and looked at the shovel that was now in his hands once again, and drummed his fingers on the wood, like he was trying to make sure that what he was holding was made of actual material, and not some kind of figment of his imagination. Then he looked at the dig-out. Then to his friends.

And then, without a word, he found a spot, and began to dig.

Yaoyorozu was the next one to move, using her Quirk to make more shovels for the rest of her group. And one by one, they all started to dig, all in complete silence. Part of Mina was tempted to ask why Momo didn't just use her Quirk to create a digger or something that would make earth moving a lot more expedient, but she held her tongue.

She was far, far, far more concerned about Izuku, and his logic here.

"…You wanna keep an eye on them, Bakugou?" She asked, quietly, making sure that the others wouldn't be able to hear her. "I need to talk to Midori."

"I'll watch 'em like a fucking hawk."

Mina nodded, and handed her shovel over to the Explosion Quirk user, before jumping out of the dig-out herself, and quickly catching up to Izuku. Considering he wasn't moving all that quickly, catching up with him wasn't all that difficult.

"Midori?" She said as she approached him, transforming her jog into a walk to keep up to speed with him. Her hand rested on his shoulder as she came up next to him. "Midori, are you alright?"

"…I'm fine. Just… Thirsty."

Being blank about it – He didn't look alright. He looked like a person who was dealing with so much that it was starting to overwhelm him. He looked like a person who was trying his best not to snap, to let all his frustration and anger and depression all start to run amok at anything that could receive it. He looked tired. He looked malnourished. He looked…

He didn't look alright.

"Midori, you know I'm not _that_ bad at realizing when people are lying, right?" She tried to be light-hearted about it, but it wasn't a good attempt. She didn't even think that it sounded light-hearted to her, and she was the one who said it.

The pair of them passed in through the main Yuuei gate, and into the main courtyard of the school. Izuku's eyes were fixated on his feet, watching as some of the smaller rocks beneath him were kicked aside. He didn't bother to look at anyone who passed by him. They all steered clear from him.

Izuku had never seemed like the lonely type, even when he was all alone. He was always the kind of person who saw the world with optimism, and had a positive feel about him. But now, he didn't have that feeling anymore.

It made him seem…. Lonely. Like he was trapped with his own thoughts, and couldn't even begin to talk about them fully.

"…I wanted to hurt him."

Mina blinked. "Huh?"

"Kirishima." Izuku clarified. "I wanted to hurt him. Yaoyorozu too… I wanted to hurt all of them."

"…Given what happened, it's… Not like you're unreasonable to want to do that, y'know."

"No. I… I wanted to hurt him. Really hurt him." There was a hint of something in his voice. "He was bowing. He was bowing, lowering himself… To apologize… And all I could think about was…"

He gulped.

"…How much of an easy target it would be."

Now it was Mina's turn to gulp.

"He was right there. He wouldn't have seen it coming. I had a shovel in my hand. I could have just…" He let the word hang, before biting his lower lip. "…And nothing would have been able to stop me. And I wanted to. I really wanted to, Mina. After everything that happened, it… It felt like I deserved that much. Didn't I deserve that small bit of revenge?..."

She knew what it was now.

"…So why didn't you do it?" She asked, quietly, already certain that she knew the answer.

Izuku's hands came out of his jacket pockets, and held themselves out in front of both himself and in front of Mina. They were trembling, worse than Mina had ever seen before. They shook uncontrollably, but had remained somewhat hidden in his jackets pockets. It had nothing to do with the temperature outside either – Eighteen centigrade, and they had been digging all day.

It was fear.

By now, his breathing had increased, and he was in a cold sweat. "…I… I realized… How close I was…" He swallowed. "How close I was to ending up… Like so many other people. Being afraid… And being angry… And lashing out because of it, to people who were just trying to… Be decent to me."

"Given what happened – "

"That's not an excuse. Not for me." He said, firmly. "…I'm supposed to be a Hero. The First Generation… I'm supposed to help people… And I… I wanted to do to someone else what they'd done to me. Like that made it okay…"

"You're being too hard on yourself." Mina removed her hand from his shoulder. Her hands grabbed hold of both of his, and sandwiched them between her own, warmer hands. The pair of them stopped, and the pink girl looked at him. "You didn't do it. That's the important thing here. You wanted to, but you didn't… That's where everyone else fails, isn't it?"

"…That's the worst part."

While Izuku's hands stopped shaking, but the guy was still clearly so tense that Mina could practically feel it, like a rod about to snap into two pieces.

"…I didn't stop myself because it was the right thing to do." He admitted, not even able to look her in the eyes anymore. "…I… I did it because without them, we're not going to finish the orphanage in five days."

Mina blinked.

"I… I saw an opportunity… An opportunity to get them to help us. To get more people building this thing, so we'd have a shot at actually getting it done on time…" A crooked smile seemed to form on his lips. One that didn't have any joy to it whatsoever. "…Real good of me, isn't it? Four people come to me asking for forgiveness… And I manipulate them into being part of my labour group, so I get to feel like I've achieved something."

A small, hollow, bitter laugh escaped his lips as he looked back at Mina.

"How messed up is that?"

* * *

 **Man, broken Izuku is… An interesting Izuku to write I guess that's why angsty Izuku is so popular, huh. I wanted to give this one a bit more of an ambiguous ending, partly because I'm tired, and partly because I think its interesting to see how morally ambiguous he's ending up thanks to everything that's happened.**

 **I got a lot of responses regarding Kirishima, and I don't think anyone fully called what the plan for him is. I think I'm actually going to throw a few of you for a loop with how I intend to go down this path – I'm looking forward to seeing just how many of you I mess with.**

 **FG is dark – But I think the next few planned chapters are going to bring the tone up a bit, and hopefully Izuku is going to get some help.**

 **In any case, let me know what you think of the most recent developments, and I hope that you managed to enjoy this chapter – and ill see you the next time!**


	28. Insomnia

"So… This is what I had in mind."

Izuku wasn't an architect, and he didn't have the mind of one. What he had planned out wasn't anything elaborate, or seemingly all that complicated. Given the Quirks that they had at their disposal, he couldn't foresee all that many difficulties getting the place up and running.

That being said, it didn't mean that he was some sort of master designer. Or planner for this sort of thing. He had an idea in his head, and he wanted the final result to be a picture-perfect reflection of what was in his mind.

Even though some of the things in his mind were just… Not exactly the most practical ideas in the world.

The basic shape was a square, although it was slightly longer on some sides, so technically it could be considered a rectangle. The overall idea that he was working with was for a building that was wider than it was tall, with several corridors that would be able to actually give the children some freedom of space. It included as well, a couple of large open spaces within, similar to what the dorms had for living space. Again, the purpose of both of these was to remove the crowded ways these kids had been made to live. When visiting, Izuku hadn't even managed to guess how two people were supposed to get past one another in such narrow corridors, and the excuse of a room that was the kitchen-stroke-living space they had been taken to was just as bad. After seeing how cramped up the old orphanage was, Izuku wanted to give the kids as much space as he could offer them. They needed it, frankly.

Plus, if any more Quirked kids ever ended up getting thrown out of their homes… They should have the space to house more. Just in case it came to it. With extra space, if worst came to worst, people could take sleeping bags and sleep in the living area.

"Three floors. We can build it up higher if we ever need to." He explained, and he dragged his finger gently over the paper, pointing things out as he explained them. "Right now though, I think we need something wide. It'll take up more space, but should feel more open for the people who live there. Remember, there's gonna be over fifty kids in there, plus me, Fuyumi and Takeyama. We're going to need a lot of materials to house everyone."

"No shit. If you wanna save stuff, we should have the kids stack up, two in a room." Katsuki pointed out. "We'd need less stuff and less room. Might even be able to take off an entire floor. Or just make half of one."

"No." Izuku said, shaking his head. "They all had to share rooms back at the other orphanage. It was… I don't even know how they haven't all gone insane yet. I want them to have their own space."

"That'd be fine, Deku." Katsuki calmly stated. "Except for one slight, tiny problem – We don't fucking have enough materials to make a brick shit-house, never mind a fucking orphanarium, but you have a plan to essentially give these little shits a fucking palace?! Where exactly are we gonna get this shit from?! You don't negotiate up from somehow managing to get someone to give you three liters of water in a fucking desert, but we do for construction work?!"

Izuku looked at Todoroki, and then towards Mina, both of whom seemed to grimace as his gaze met with theirs. As much as they wanted to back up their curly haired friend, they couldn't help but concede to Katsuki – He had a good point.

They weren't a construction team, and frankly, it was going to be a miracle if they even got the materials that they were going to need to even make a small cottage. They didn't have money, or any Quirks that could produce anything that they needed. Kirishima and his group had told them that Monoma was willing to help them, but he was still confined to his dorm room after getting the brunt of the blame for the fight, despite Kirishima's attempts to take responsibility. That would be easy – Monoma used his Quirk to copy teacher Ishiyama's Cement Quirk, get back to them, and then construct the layout of the building. That would be easy.

Once they had cement. And bricks.

And God knew how they were going to get either.

Going up to a place as Quirked student and asking for construction supplies wasn't even an option dumb enough to consider even as a joke. Getting Toshinori to purchase it would hurt the schools already limited funding, but it was possible, and something he had already agreed to look into – But they wouldn't end up with even close to enough for what Izuku needed.

"You… You saw that place, Mina, Todoroki." Izuku said, though it was more a whisper at this point. The rational part of his brain knew that what his friends were saying made sense, and that double rooms was not, at the end of the day, a massive thing to ask of people who were crammed into far smaller rooms, but the part of his brain that wanted to yell the loudest was the part that didn't want them to have even the slightest association with what they were leaving behind. He wanted them to feel like they were getting a fresh chance, to start again, and for some reason, this idea that sharing rooms could ruin that was one of the loudest concerns that he had. "We can't ask them to share rooms after that."

"I'm sorry, but I don't see why not." Todoroki stated, folding his arms. "Even if we put two people in a room, it's bound to be nicer than whatever they've got at Fuyumi's place. If we make the rooms large enough, sharing rooms shouldn't be too much of a problem. And I'm speaking as someone who used to live in that place." His words were blunt, and without any emotional constraint, but no one who listened could deny that he was right.

"I speak as someone who used to sleep on the streets." Mina said, with a small sigh at the knowledge her answer was going to disappoint her friend. "They'll be happy to have a roof over their head that doesn't feel like it's a step away from falling in on them. Back then, if I got told I could have a room that kept me dry and warm, but I needed a bunk-mate, I'd've jumped all over that."

"Look at our dorm rooms." Todoroki said. "We fit twenty in what we have. If we doubled up, we wouldn't feel cramped up, and we'd be able to get forty people inside one building."

"Plus, some of the rooms are vacant." Uraraka added. "In case more people got thrown into Yuuei. Those places are probably equipped to fit in way more people than just the twenty of us."

"So what I'm getting from this," Katsuki said, glancing around the room, inspecting the interior of the topical building they sat in. "Is that we should model this orphanage after one of the dorm buildings?"

"Okay, okay…" Izuku sighed, closing his eyes and just sitting there for a moment. It felt wrong, and guilt washed throughout his system – But he couldn't deny the points that his friends were making. All incredibly good points. Logical, and with arguments that he couldn't exactly refute with any reasons of his own. There was a part of him that didn't like it… But he saw the points and conceded. "So, we're basically just remaking our dorm rooms then?"

His hand lazily, but suddenly grabbed hold of the old sketches he had made, and crumpled them up between both of his hands – They weren't going to serve any purpose now that they had a whole other design plan. Everyone watched with a feeling of guilt hitting their stomach, though they didn't stop Izuku from doing it – His idea had been ambitious, and the first drafts weren't ever going to be perfect. Plus, Izuku wasn't an architect. None of them could really be a hundred percent certain his design was even structurally solid. Of course, there was no reason it shouldn't have been. To them. Again, they weren't people who had spent years learning all the math and science behind building things. Someone trained might be able to point out the flaws with Izuku's proposed building.

They were all stood in a building that essentially stood as a proof of concept. They didn't necessarily need to come up with an all new design when they could just copy what they already knew worked.

Still, as he tossed the paper behind him, all scrunched up in a ball, the group couldn't help but feel bad for Izuku, and his wasted efforts.

* * *

Izuku laid in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He didn't blink much, not trusting himself to stay awake if he let his eyes close too much. His eyelids felt heavy, but he knew that if he could just fight it off until he got hold of some coffee, or stimulants, he'd be able to power through it. That was how he'd been getting through the nights pretty much all week.

This made it three full days he'd been awake without sleeping… Or four. To be perfectly honest, he had lost track by this point.

Sleeping just felt like such a waste of time to him, and it was a luxury that he didn't have the option of indulging himself with. Sleep, when you got right down to it, was just staying motionless for up to eight hours a day, on average. That made up a third of the entire average human lifespan. Izuku had managed to adapt his body to be able to work with six hours of sleep a night, which was certainly survivable, but that was still a quarter of the day that he spent asleep!

Not that sleeping troubles were a new thing for Izuku. He'd suffered from a need to be awake, doing stuff, for years. Putting the health and well-being of others before himself. A trait he picked up from looking after Katsuki when he was first kicked out, and then looking after others as he found them and helped them throughout his years of helping the Quirked on the streets. Always making sure they were comfy, thinking up ideas for things to do to help, and making sure that they got their sleep.

So he was a bit of a hypocrite when it came to sleep, but that didn't bother him – Others needed their rest. He could get his sleep when he didn't need to work on anything.

Of course, that was what he always said, but really, he'd never had trouble falling asleep before. The Human body was simply not designed to go for so long without rest – It helped to restore energy, and help the brains mental capacity increase. Scientifically, sleep was incredibly good for people. Izuku knew this, and despite always wanting to stay awake, and wishing that he had a Quirk that eliminated his need for sleep, he always seemed to get his rest.

Now though… He couldn't.

And there were a few reasons for it. The biggest one being that he wanted to make sure this orphanage was built on time. He wanted to make sure that he could welcome the kids to the home that they needed, and deserved to have, and he had every intention of making it happen, no matter what he had to do.

…But that wasn't it. Not on its own.

Right now, it was that… He couldn't.

He feared if he closed his eyes, he wouldn't be able to open them, yes…. But he wouldn't be asleep. He'd just have his eyes closed. And not have the strength to open them again. He couldn't sleep – Either literally or figuratively. His eyes rolled as he thought about it.

Insomnia. That was something… He didn't want to worry his friends with. They were already stressed out because of him enough, he couldn't add onto that copious amount by revealing on top of the trauma and, according to Mina, depression and self-loathing, he was also an insomniac. Like there wasn't already enough wrong with him.

The incident earlier that day with Kirishima – Him offering his assistance, and Izuku's only thought at the time being how easy revenge would be – Made Mina suggest that he was dealing with depression. She had thought that since the Nomu incident, and had gone out of her way to mention that to the nurse… But this seemed to serve as the final confirmation that he was suffering from the mental illness, in a way that was a lot more severe than she had guessed.

Dark thoughts, self-hatred, a constant feeling of emptiness and sadness…

… It had been about an hour. That would be long enough.

After learning about what Izuku had said to Mina, the others had decided that tonight was the final straw, and that weather he liked it or not, he needed to get some sleep. They wanted him to get ten hours of rest, at most. He'd somehow been able to negotiate that down to seven and a half, which the others seemed to think they had no choice but to accept if they wanted him to agree.

On top of that, Mina had practically dragged him to Nurse Chiyo's office, and spoken with the older woman. It didn't end up taking long to convince her to run a few psychological tests on him, and she quickly reached the same conclusion that Mina had. Thanks to Mina's earlier suggestion, she'd already been investigating the dosage and strength of a prescription Izuku would need.

Izuku found himself with a box of pills, with the instructions to take three of them a day – One in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. He found himself in front of a sink, with a single pill in his hand. He looked at the pill, pink on one side, green on the other. The colours made him chuckle, once, before sighing again. To be honest, he doubted that they would help. Guilt was the main driving factor, so how would an anti-depressant help with that? Guilt and stress. Stress over getting this orphanage built on time. Pills wouldn't help with stress, would they?

He filled a glass up with water, and then placed the pill on the back of his tongue, filled his mouth up with water, and then swallowed it.

If nothing else, hopefully it would at least help put Mina and the other's minds at rest.

After finishing off the glass of water, he went over to his door, before pausing just as his hand reached out and took hold of the handle. Somehow, he couldn't think to put it past his friends to station someone on guard out there in case he tried to leave in a conventional manner.

Not that it would be a big problem. The window wasn't guarded.

* * *

Before heading towards the digging and planning site, Izuku snuck back into the dorm building from the front, and made his way towards the kitchen. He wasn't especially hungry, but he had a feeling that he might be by the time that the sun came up, so packed himself up a few things. Croissants, bread, sandwiches – Things that would expand in his stomach throughout the day, so he'd need to stop to eat less.

One For All was a useful Quirk in this sneaking around scenario of his. Not only did it help him make his landing without breaking his knees, it also helped him jump right over the Yuuei walls without any difficulty whatsoever. With barely any noise, he was out of the school grounds that had been thrown millions to keep the Quirked in.

He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, not realizing that it would be so cold at night. He counted himself lucky that he brought his jacket along, otherwise he knew for certain that he'd be facing the shivers. The temperature was getting colder as the days went by. He shuddered to imagine being homeless in this kind of temperature.

As he made his way towards the digging site though, he aw something that made him stop dead in his tracks, blink, and stare for a moment.

For that moment, he thought his eyes had decided to play tricks on him, or at worst, he was hallucinating, and for a serious half second, he considered turning back, and following Mina's advice on trying to actually get some sleep.

But then it happened again. A faint, weird glow, just a bit beyond where the digging ad commenced.

Izuku blinked, and rubbed his eyes. A couple of seconds later, the glow was there again.

He approached, though now, he approached with caution, carefully and curiously, while still being ready to strike if that was what it was going to take. In this world now, it could have been anything, or anyone, that was near the future home of those Quirked children. He didn't have a whole lot of theories, but he knew that he needed to find out what it was.

Several more rounds of glowing occurred before Izuku got close. He treaded carefully with his steps, trying not to make any sound. As he approached, he saw a silhouette once the glowing began. A silhouette that he didn't recognize.

Normally, it would have been normal to feel some fear. He was looking at an unknown, right next to Yuuei, doing… Something with the self-created construction site. He should have been shaking, apprehensive. But he wasn't. He didn't feel much of anything. If that was numbness, or the apparent depression speaking, he didn't know. Nor care.

His hand pulled out his phone, and he aimed it at the figure in front of him. With a couple of swipes and one app pressed, the flash function on his phone burst into life, shooting the figure with a dosage of light. Details became clearer – Black hair, pale skin. Said figure was dressed lightly, and also was bent slightly down. Something was at their feet. Something their hands were trying to grasp onto.

"Who are you?" Izuku asked flatly. There wasn't much intimidation to his voice. More tired than anything. Considering he heard a gasp as he spoke, he had a feeling that he came across a lot more scary than he intended. "I don't particularly feel like hurting you, but I need to know who this is, so could you please just make this easy for me?"

No movement for about three seconds, before a resigned sigh came from the person. They stood upright, revealing themselves to be taller than Izuku, but thinner with it. They turned around.

And Izuku blinked, and his right eyebrow quirked upwards. "Yaoyorozu?"

Yaoyorozu's expression didn't seem to sell a whole lot. Her cat-like eyes were focused on the floor beneath her, and her lips were totally neutral. What was the biggest surprise was the clothing that she was wearing in the cold – An open Zip, black jacket, with some piece of fabric that covered her chest…. And that being it. Her stomach, and neck, were both completely visible.

Her hair was down as well, which was something Izuku didn't recall seeing all that often from her. When she put her hair up, it was quite easily recognizable with how she did it, but left down, it was – Well, within the students at Yuuei, it was still recognizable, but if Yaoyorozu was thrown into the streets with her hair down, it would be pretty difficult to pick her out amongst the crowds.

Of everyone he expected to find here, Izuku wasn't counting on it being her.

"Uh…." Yaoyorozu tried to glance away. Izuku assumed that it was to do with the fact he was still shining a light in her face. He lowered it slightly.

And found by her feet, a fairly large, almost perfectly cut brick.

"What the…" Izuku then focused the light entirely on what he found. Yaoyorozu's expression became more distraught.

The light bounced off the brick, and then onto another brick, behind the raven-haired girl. Only this brick was stacked into a pile.

An enormous pile. Of other bricks.

How many there were, Izuku didn't even bother to count. The height went well above his head, and above Yaoyorozu's at that. He stared, blankly for a few moments, convinced that this was some kind of hologram, or trick, or… Something. He reached out and touched them, and their cold feel informed him that what he was looking at here was incredibly real.

His eyes widened. "…What the – Yaoyorozu, where did all of this come from?!"

"…It came from my Quirk."

Izuku blinked again, and turned to face her, his eyes still open in shock. "Your – You _made_ all of this?!"

The girl nodded, and folded her arms up. "I… I'm sure if you asked Bakugou, he'd say that I wasn't… The most efficient worker earlier today. The truth was… I was trying to save up energy. For… This." She explained, though she sounded… Almost ashamed of what she was saying.

The idea of using Yaoyorozu's Quirk to generate materials… It had been considered. At least, briefly, but Izuku ended up putting a stop to the idea himself. To create the materials that would be needed to make something like an entire building… It would be far, far too much to subject her to. It'd drain her dry.

He hated her for her role in the incident. There wasn't any kinder way of saying that. But he didn't want her dead. She was guilty, yes, but less so than Kirishima.

Anger and vindication were at the heart of his feelings towards Momo, Kirishima and that group – Not homicidal rage.

"I thought your Quirk needed fat to work." Izuku stated looking at the sheer number of these created bricks. "There's more brick than – How did you even make all of this?!"

"…Eating…. A lot more than I'm willing to admit." Yaoyorozu almost seemed embarrassed by it. "My Quirk doesn't need an exact amount of fat equal to what I make. If it did, every time I made something like a metal bat, I'd end up losing two pounds. I wouldn't really have… Any body mass left if it was a pure exchange."

"That would explain how you're not just a shriveled mess on the ground right now." Izuku muttered. "Not to shoot your work down or anything, but, I was thinking… Well, me and my group were thinking. We're going to try and copy the dorm building designs. And, well, I was thinking that if we just used cement, when Monoma gets out and copies the Cement Quirk – "

"I actually considered that." Explained the Creation Quirk user. "And, well… The dorm buildings can be replicated with cement, sure…. But the structure would be overall slightly weaker. At least in certain places."

To better explain what she was talking about, the taller girl pulled out a folded-up piece of paper from her jacket, and unfolded it. Unlike the sketches that Izuku had made the previous day, the ones that Yaoyorozu produced were blue, with white squares, and white outlines. Actual blueprints, on professional design paper.

"Wait, you actually understand architecture?" Izuku asked, stepping closer, and shining his light directly onto the paper.

"Well… A little. I know someone who understands it all a lot better than I do." Yaoyorozu explained. She continued, "She says that if we add a few bricks at the corners, that should increase the structural integrity. Cement should cover the rest."

"And this is reliable?"

"I mean… I trust her, if that's what you're asking me. I was also going to make some glass, window frames, roofing tiles. The actual cement –"

"And that brings me to my next question. Why are you doing this?"

"We… We need the materials, don't we?"

"Yeah, but we were going to get them through other means. Probably by asking the Head to buy them with a cut of the budget."

"Well… There's no need to, is there? This just… Seemed faster."

"I'll ask again." Izuku said slowly, making it clear in his voice that he didn't want an answer that tip-toed around what he was asking. "Why are you doing this?"

Yaoyorozu bit her lower lip, and seemed to freeze slightly at the sheer coldness in Izuku's voice. Not that she hadn't heard it before, but that was when she was at least with other people. Right now, it was just the two of them. Outside, on their own. His intimidation factor seemed to go up about eighty percent just due to that singular fact. Plus, the tone of his voice…

Izuku had always been patient, and understanding before the incident. Now, Yaoyorozu found herself opposite someone who wasn't going to be satisfied unless he knew exactly what she was doing out here. Before, he might have been trusting enough to take her word for it

He wasn't anymore.

Any attempts to hide why she was doing this were thrown directly out the window as she realized this. A small sigh escaped her lips. Her left hand grabbed hold of her right bicep, and she gently squeezed it. "…I.. I wanted to help. R-Really. That's… That's it."

"If you wanted to help, you don't think that bringing up the fact you could make all of this stuff would have been a good place to start?"

"…I… didn't want anyone to know."

This time, Izuku's left eyebrow was the one to raise. He was expecting there to be more to this story. He waited for a few moments for the girl in front of him to explain the rest of what she was doing.

It never came though.

"…You didn't want anyone to know?"

"No…"

"Why not?"

A brief pause. "… A… Couple of reasons." Another pause. "I didn't want anyone to credit me, okay?"

"Credit? What, you were just – " Izuku stopped dead in his tracks, and felt his arms flop by his sides. He looked at the tall girl, then to the pile of bricks before him, and then back at her. "…You didn't want anyone to know that you'd contributed this?"

"No."

"Why not?" That was quickly becoming a question Izuku was starting to wonder why he needed to ask so much with Yoyorozu.

"Because if I took credit, then it just looks… Shallow." She sighed, finally deciding that she'd had enough of just looking at the ground. Her back rested itself against the brick pile, and she let herself slide onto the ground. Her gaze was still directed downward, and her voice was quieter as she got lower. "It'd just make it look like I was trying to say 'Look at me. I did something important. My conscious is now clean.'… I didn't want anyone to know… Cause then it'd look like I was… Doing it more for me than for what's the… Right thing to do here."

Not… The response Izuku had honestly been expecting.

"Seriously… I'm lucky. I've been so insanely lucky my entire life." Yaoyorozu said with a solemn sigh. "My parents didn't have a problem with me having a Quirk. I got to live with them… In a pretty nice place. And all of the servants we had were all good to me too."

Izuku blinked, twice, in rapid succession. She said the word 'Servant' like it was no big deal.

"So I never… Had to deal with any of… What the rest of them did." Yaoyorozu let her leg stretch out. The ground was cold, but she didn't seem to care. "I heard all the horror stories though. On the news… From the servants… And then, from them. People I'd gotten used to calling my friends…" Her eyes looked up towards Izuku. "You know, I didn't get a choice in coming here. I had to come. My Quirk was registered, and they sent my family a notice. Mom wanted to fight it… But I… I said that I'd go."

"…Why'd you do that?"

"I didn't want to cause them more trouble. They'd already lost a lot of… Face, with important people because they had a Quirked child. And…. I'd never met anyone else who had a Quirk. Maybe I was subconsciously curious who I'd meet…" Another sigh. "I didn't know I'd meet people like I have… That I'd make… These kinds of connections with people. People like Kirishima… Kaminari…" A lot quieter. "…Kyouka… I… I trusted them. With my life. And, I know it's probably hard for you to understand… But even after all of this, I still do."

"… No. I… I get it."

The names were different, but Izuku shared the same connection with his own friends. In spite of his own issues with them, he wasn't going to deny it. He shared those connections. Even when his friends made mistakes, or irritated or even angered him… That connection was still there.

He had his connections. Yaoyorozu had hers.

"…I'm… I'm sorry." The Creation Quirk user said, shaking her head. "I – I'm making this about me, aren't I." She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand – It was only now Izuku realized that tears had been welling up for her for a while now. "Oh, no. This – This is exactly what I wanted to – Don't – Pay me no mind, please."

There was a part of Izuku that wanted to offer her comfort, to try to assure her of…. Something. Were it not for the still present anger inside, as well as her request to be left alone, he might have done. Instead, he obeyed her request, letting her rub the water from her eyes, and regaining her composure on her own.

"I… I heard stories. About… The Quirkless from them." She said as she managed to calm down. "Horrible stories… So much worse than what the news or the servants told me… Because this was stuff that my friends were telling me happened to them… To people I really cared about. It just felt… So real suddenly. I could disassociate myself from the stuff on the news, but what was happening to them, I couldn't… Just, separate myself from. And… As soon as that happened, I really, really started to… Feel afraid of people… Like you."

She shuddered as she remembered some of the many horror stories she had been told.

"So… When Kirishima approached me with his plan… I joined him. I didn't want anything to happen to any of them… I even dragged Kyouka into it… For all the good that did…" It sounded like she was fighting a lump in her throat. "That had to be the biggest mistake I've ever made…"

"Sounds more like you should be telling her this, not me."

"….She doesn't want anything more to do with me."

At this, Izuku felt a twang of guilt hit his heart. "You mean…?"

"She told me she didn't want anything to do with what happened… That I was just being… Overly dramatic. But I kept talking to her… And she wanted to trust me more than she wanted to be right…" Yaoyorozu managed to speak. Her words were ending up squeakier and quieter. "I… She was right though… She was… Completely right… And I ended up siding with Kirishima over her… And that was…" Her voice seemed to break. "…Proof she couldn't trust me anymore. That I was just as… A-As bad as the people I was talking abou…"

She couldn't talk further. At this point, tears were overpowering her.

That explained why Jirou had left the 1A dorm, Izuku supposed. Jirou and Yaoyorozu had split – No wonder she'd taken to making a place for herself at the 1B dorms. Staying in the same building after something like that could only cause…. Trouble.

It wasn't anything that he had had any idea about either. While it didn't take much to figure out that the two were having problems, it certainly hadn't been evident that their relationship had been terminated along due to those problems. And there couldn't really be any doubt that at the center of that now failed relationship… Was Izuku.

He didn't exactly regret what he had done – He'd done what he needed to do at the time, and he'd do it all over again. Without question. But… He'd admit to feeling bad about causing that.

"I… Forgive me." Yaoyorozu said, forcing herself to speak through tears. "I'm not trying to justify what we did to you… I… I don't know why that all came out."

"…It's not like I can completely blame you." Izuku sighed. He took a seat on the brick he first saw, and then unzipped his own jacket.

It took a bit of fumbling, but he managed to get his arm out without taking the whole jacket off.

Showing Yaoyorozu the massive burn mark along his bicep.

He always took care to make sure said burn was covered up when he was in company. Partly because he knew that it made people feel uncomfortable to see scars like his, but maybe part of it was also self-conscientious. He avoided bringing it up whenever he could. Maybe he just didn't like people seeing it.

Maybe because he felt it signified something else.

"…I got this from To - … From someone with a fire Quirk." He explained. "I was trying to help them after they lost control over… Something. I ended up with this… It's third degree. I'm gonna carry this for most of my life."

He looked at his burn. He saw it every day, but he never thought about it. Not like he was now, anyway.

"… I got it a year ago. Maybe two. I don't fully recall. I've been up for three nights on caffeine and stimulants. It's all kind of hazy." He mumbled. "But… I do remember that when I first got this thing, I remember exactly what I felt."

He sighed.

"I was terrified."

He was. He remembered it all quite clearly. Flames all around the place. An entire street deserted. Only him, Kacchan, and Todoroki there, the latter of which Izuku was convinced was going to roast him alive. He was in agony, on the ground.

If there was one thing Izuku remembered clear as crystal in his entire life, it was that he was absolutely terrified.

"I got out okay, obviously." He said. "But it was… Still kind of a traumatic experience, I guess. I… For the first time in my life, I guess I really understood why people were scared of the Quirked… But, it's also why I wanted to come to Yuuei. I wanted to… I guess I wanted to be proof that people didn't need to be afraid. That if I could look past all the differences we had…"

"…And the Head… Knew this?"

"I've known him for a while. He gave me his Quirk, like he said at the start of the year. I guess his plan was to try and make what I was going to say more believable… Though I guess it just came across as him making excuses for me, didn't it? Especially since he still had remnants left of One For All…" A pause. "My Quirk. It's called One For All."

"O-Oh."

"But… Yeah. He… He means what he says. He's not lying when he says he wants to help Yuuei become a bridge. I wanted to help do that… One person at a time…"

"…It… It doesn't make up for what we did." Yaoyorozu couldn't look at him anymore. Her head returned to the ground. "I know it doesn't… But… Please believe me when I tell you that I am sorry. If I… If I'd known…"

"If you'd known… I would have been the exception. The one Quirkless guy who wasn't a total jerk." Izuku said, solemnly. "If I showed you my Quirk the first day we met… Aside from having a broken bone, I would have been the one exception to your belief that the Quirkless all wanted to hurt you. I…. I'm as guilty as everyone else is, in that regard."

Frankly… He wished things could have gone better. He didn't like feeling hatred.

But he couldn't help it.

He had let everyone else think that he was lying, because he had wanted to show them how that kind of attitude always, always backfires. It didn't get anyone anywhere. Throughout history it simply had led to the stagnation of progress, rather than the advancement of it. And it applied to both sides as well. Being so fundamentally clingy to their beliefs that they couldn't even take a single second out of their lives to consider the possibility of there being some alternative. The number of wars and suffering and loss of life that could have been prevented was staggering.

Something that Izuku wanted to try to help avoid with the Quirk epidemic.

…Though now, he found himself questioning his methods. Both ethically, and in their effectiveness.

What good was dismantling that preconceived prejudice if it was just going to make him hate them as much as they had him?

But… This situation was different, in certain aspects.

Izuku sighed, and slid his backpack off, and swung it onto his lap. He rooted through its contents for a short while, before retrieving some of the food that he'd taken before he left. Most of it was contained in a plastic container, all compactly stacked against one another.

"Here."

About a second later, the container landed next to Yaoyorozu's legs, skidding along and up to her thigh, before stopping just against her leg. In the dark, it took the Creation Quirk user a few moments for her eyes to realize what they were looking at. She stared for a moment, before looking at Izuku.

"If you've been using your Quirk all night, you must be on empty by now." He zipped his bag back up, as well as his jacket. "If you want to help, then you're going to need your fat reserves back. Don't worry. I'm not going to tell anyone you're responsible for this."

"M… Midoriya…"

"Forget it. I have a feeling that I'm not going to be hungry for the rest of the day."

"…Thank you…"

"If you wanna thank me… Tell me who made those blueprints."

There was a difference here. A difference between the anger Izuku felt, and the anger Yaoyorozu and her group would have felt towards him.

The difference was, Izuku knew he could put his aside.

* * *

 **I wrote this in two days '-' Then again, it was super fun. I'm honestly just surprised that I managed to get this done so quickly. This arc is honestly ending up being a lot of fun, and I'm hoping to wrap it up in maybe…. One or two more chapters.**

 **I am really piling it onto poor Izuku aren't I. Someone pointed out that it's like he's battle hardened, and I guess you could say that about him. He's very… Different to how he started out, but I honestly think it fits. I get to explore a lot of themes with him like this, including ones personal to me. The future for him is going to be…. Interesting. Specially now since I have it all planned out. Look forward to the next few chapters, and…. Quite a few changes.**

 **I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter – And As I remind everyone – Tumblr, Ko - Fi, Pat Reon, and now, Twitter, are all out there, under the name QuirkQuartz – I don't expect donations, but if you guys want to support what I do, any donations are heavily appreciated, as are follows on social media, which will also let you keep up to date with the things that I'm up to.**

 **Thank you all for reading – and I'll see you all next time!**


	29. The Technically Minded

An age in which superpowers became more and more common as the days passed by was an age that was considered by many to be almost apocalyptic. Some – Mostly the Quirkless – Saw it was the end of the Human race, as it changed and mutated into something else. Something different.

Something more terrifying. Something that had the power to change the course of society. Something…

Unknown.

And that was really the scariest part about it, at least in the general sense. So many found themselves terrified of this new development in Humanity that they didn't understand. Loved ones turning into beasts and demons, children growing up looking like aliens. And these weren't changes that could be voted against, or repealed. No one knew what to do in the face of these new mysterious Quirks. Research was coming up empty-handed. No one really knew what was going on. It certainly didn't help that Quirks were unique to each individual – So when one came face to face with someone Quirked, there was no way of knowing what their powers were.

Of course, that was a single way of looking at it. Some saw the development as terrifying.

Others saw it as opportunity.

If someone asked Mei Hatsume what she thought about the Quirk epidemic, her answer would easily be that it was amazing.

Of course, given that she possessed a Quirk herself, one could see her as being a biased source, but really, there was a lot more to it than her being involved. Mei's Quirk wasn't even all that impressive – What she loved about it was how it made things more interesting.

Without Quirks, everyone was almost the exact same – The same capability, the same restrictions, and the same appearances. Mei couldn't figure out what the Quirkless saw in it – Quirks were vastly more interesting.

Plus, they were absolutely perfect for engineering.

What surprised Mei about Yuuei was how forward thinking that the Headmaster was. While some people understandably felt that he had just been put in charge because the people in power didn't want someone who was going to fight back, Mei got the feeling that he was honestly interested in trying to make life better for those who were born with these powers. He had one himself – Although, that was a whole thing, lately – And he seemed to understand that you couldn't treat people who had Quirks in the same way as those that didn't.

Equality wasn't something that Quirks could maintain in society. Equality assumed everyone was of equal ability, which with Quirks, simply was not the same.

Rather, equity was what was going to be the way forward – Accepting that every Quirk was different, and that everyone had different requirements. A person whom had a Quirk that let them have wings wasn't going to have the same requirements as someone with a Pyrokinetic Quirk.

Mei understood this, and had quickly found herself knee deep in work. Invention was always something she was good at – She remembered taking all the family electronics apart, and then putting them back together when she was little – And it helped to have something to keep her busy and distracted from the world's madness outside the walls. She helped develop things for people to use their Quirks that bit easier – Clothing that was fire-retardant, clothing adjustments for various mutation type Quirks…

…And of course, gadgets the help people utilize their powers more. What really ended up being the passion project that she became fascinated by. Using technology to help assist power holders use their Quirks in new and creative ways, to improve them and compensate for their weaknesses.

The Quirkless certainly didn't have even the remotest interest in this sort of advancement. If anything, the technology they researched seemed designed to suppress Quirks, as opposed to bring them out in all their glorious fashion. One would have logically thought that people who had Quirks would be more interested.

Although oddly enough, no one ever seemed to want the devices that she made, which had her completely stumped. An entire corner was dedicated to her and her craft, all utilized for whatever Quirks she saw in the courtyards of in the training halls, or just whenever something came into her mind. Her brain was a powderkeg of ideas that just needed a spark to unleash the full power of her imagination, and being surrounded by Quirks was easily the fastest way to get her brain racking. Not that she didn't have other areas of expertise.

More that she knew where the sweetest parts of her passion laid.

* * *

Every day that passed just seemed to get more and more strange.

Ever since the idea of Heroism had made its way into Izuku's head, nearly every day had been filled with strangeness. Granted, he'd never been what someone could call predictable, or traditional in the first place, but there was certainly something about the idea of Heroism that had made him take it all to a whole new level.

His ideas, at first, to many, seemed insane. Far-fetched, idealistic, and downright strange. But Izuku had a way of bringing out the optimism in people, and convincing them to go along with his plans. Sometimes even those who followed him questioned why they followed him. He just had that air about him.

Each day came with its own challenges, ideas and questions. When you were already doing the incredible, there were only two things that remained – The mystery, and the confusion.

Today was easily a mix of both.

And that was severely underselling it. To say that the last thirty minutes had been a confusing miasma would be the understatement of the decade.

Classes had been rather sporadic ever since the incident between Izuku and Kirishima, what with everyone being so incredibly shaken by the events, and with a sudden increase in the amount of outside-the-classroom work the teachers were suddenly given. What the teachers were busy with, the student body couldn't hazard a guess. Rumors had started that there had been some kind of incident that needed the Heads attention, while others theorized that word about the fight had leaked outside the Yuuei walls, and now the Quirkless were trying to figure out a way to shut down the school in retaliation.

Of course, no one really knew for certain. Common sense and logic suggested that the teachers wouldn't be so preoccupied by a threat to close the school – The Quirkless were the ones who wanted it in the first place. It kept as many Quirked people in one place as possible. Even if there had been a leak about the incident, it didn't seem all that likely that the Quirkless could even give a damn. Seal them in, and let them do whatever seemed to be a pretty common mindset when it came to Yuuei.

Still, that didn't change the fact that they'd only had a single class since the incident, and even then, it was a rather… Lacklustre one at that. And that felt weird, describing something Aizawa did as lacklustre, but it was. He hadn't seemed all there, like something was firmly on his mind.

And when Aizawa wasn't fully there for a lesson, then it was a safe bet that something was going on behind the scenes.

In any case though, classes hadn't really been much of a thing for the last few days. Many students found themselves with a lot of free time that they didn't quite know what to fill with. Unlike other students at non-Quirked schools, they might have been able to go into town, buy a few games or go and see movies, or do… something. But it wasn't an option. The risk of being attacked or harassed was a risk that very few of the student body was willing to take. So they found themselves trapped within the Yuuei grounds.

For Izuku's group, their days had been filled up for construction work. The last few days had been spent digging out a foundation, and now they were joined by Kirishima's group, each and every one of which – Excluding Monoma – Were all there with them in the morning, ready to spend the day digging up what was left the dig out, and then figure out what was to come next.

Except today, there was a…. Surprise for them.

The first words out of Izuku's mouth? 'Don't ask me, because I don't know.'

Ignoring the fact that he had snuck out at night – Which, frankly, Mina was both amazed and annoyed that she hadn't predicted that one – The group found themselves wide eyed at the sheer sight of what was in front of them. Windows, framing, concrete blocks, and a kind of large barrel container, which was filled to the brim with cement, still wet. Giant blocks of construction rocks….

Everything one needed to build a house. Everything that they needed – In nearly the exact quantities. In some places, there was more than what they needed.

And it was all just there. In the open, waiting for them, lacking just the wrapping paper and bow to be just like a Christmas present.

Of course, Katsuki was convinced that it was some kind of trick, or that there was something else going on. He ended up checking just about every single square inch of the… What did Mina even call it, now that she thought about it? The gift? The surprise? The supplies? Well, whatever it was, Mina found herself entirely agreeing with Katuski's total suspicion and skepticism – To him, this could all easily just be some kind of elaborate trick, designed to mess with the Quirked. The Quirkless didn't often come around Yuuei since the motorcycle incident, but maybe one of them had come around, seen what they were working on, and then rigged up all these supplies to do who knew what.

No one just gave away all this kind of stuff for free.

Todoroki suggested that perhaps the Head had brought it all in overnight, as per Izuku's request. That was an explanation Kirishima seemed to think made sense – Although, seemingly just out of spite, that made Katsuki even more convinced that it was some kind of trick. Of course, he kept searching every single centimeter, over and over again, expecting to find the… Whatever it was he was looking for on the next centimeter. But he came up with nothing, no matter how hard he searched. It was clean.

So these supplies appeared out of nowhere, from some unknown source, from outside Yuuei, was all clean of traps and spying equipment and trickery, ready for them to utilize the moment that they got their hands on Monoma, and he got hold of the Cement Quirk - They'd even left cement for him to manipulate, so they clearly knew what was going on in detail. And on top of that, no one had even the slightest idea how it all got here without being heard, only a few hours ago - The cement was still wet, so it couldn't have been here for long.

Izuku made it a point to call up the Headmaster to ask if he knew anything about it. It took a couple of attempts before his mentor picked up the phone, and, placed on speakerphone, he revealed that he knew absolutely nothing about it, and promising to come down and look over everything at some point during the day. He also promised to investigate if any of the staff had the answers, though he didn't sound like he believed any of them did for a moment.

No one had a solid answer. No one even had any guesses after that.

Finally, Izuku suggested that they just be grateful to whomever it was that had brought them these supplies - Whoever they were, and for whatever reason that they had brought all of this, they had saved them from the biggest roadblock to their goal. That they shouldn't look a gift-horse in the mouth, and just make the most out of what they had.

It was a stance Yaoyorozu agreed with. Kirishima trusted Yaoyorozu's judgement, and Uraraka, speaking as someone who grew up in poverty, and with a construction company, pointed out just how exceedingly rare it was to get something like this, and agreed with the logic of just being thankful that someone, whomever that was, supported their idea enough to bring them this, even if it was anonymously. It ended up being the Zero-Gravity Quirk users' assessment that swayed the conflicted minds of the others.

Katsuki still maintained that it would be safer to destroy everything, just in case it was a trap, but he found himself outvoted. He had grumbled, but conceded.

Somehow though, that wasn't where the oddities ended though.

* * *

The stares were something Mina found herself unable to get past. Even after fifteen years, she could never get used to them. She'd always found herself being self-conscious when it came to being in crowds of people, no matter who she was surrounded by. Quirked or Quirkless. She was aware of how much she stood out in any crowd, and it always wound up with her being the center of attention anywhere she went, no matter if she wanted to be or not.

Right now, she wasn't. Not exactly. It was Izuku they were staring at, thanks to his brand-new reputation, but they all saw Mina too. She was the girl that he hung out with, and that reputation Izuku had seemed to have leaked onto Mina without either of their approval. And just the knowledge that she wasn't the one being watched wasn't helping her there.

It was bad enough when the Quirkless stared. The judgmental looks that were mixed with glares of hatred and fury. The anger at the mere existence of something that was different to them. The fear of something that they didn't understand.

As inhuman as it made her feel though, Mina could at least understand why the Quirkless stared at her. It wasn't all that difficult to understand when you looked at it from their perspective - People with abnormal characteristics and supernatural powers that were impossible to predict. Supernatural powers that the Quirkless didn't have – It wasn't hard to see why so many people were afraid of her.

Even though it was unwarranted, she could at the very least understand. It was a small part of why she was so afraid of the Quirkless herself - They were different to her, and she couldn't even begin to guess which ones were fine with her, which ones would just stare, and which ones would try to beat her to death if given half a chance.

They made her uncomfortable, but she could at least tolerate the Quirkless stares. Even if they frightened her half to death.

But when the Quirked stared, it made the pink girl feel all the more isolated.

The Quirked were her people. They were people who were just like her, who felt and suffered from the same discrimination she did, people she felt more comfortable around. No matter what she did, she would always catch people's eyes, but at least when surrounded by other Quirked, she knew they understood that she had no choice, and gave her a fair chance.

They understood, and she understood them. Even without exchanging words, there was that mutual understanding at least.

Being stared at like this though made her feel like she'd lost that understanding. And it made her uncomfortable, and hyper-aware or just how... Alien she was, even among her own kind. Like they didn't understand her. Like they didn't even know her.

Like… She wasn't one of them anymore.

She cleared her throat.

"Uh... So... Uh, how - How'd you learn about this girl, Midori?"

Izuku's discovery of someone who understood architecture, and a variety of engineering and mechanical skills, was frankly a sudden development. Neither Mina nor anyone else had heard of such a person attending Yuuei, and if this was common knowledge, both knew that Izuku would have been the first person to investigate getting this persons help. Since he was only doing so now, he must have only recently learned of this girl.

The timing of this was certainly strange too. The very same day that this mysterious pie of supplies was presented to them was the same day Izuku had planned to meet some reliable tech wizard?

If Mina didn't know better, she would have thought that Izuku knew what was going on.

"It's uh, it's just something I uh, overheard." Izuku answered half-heartedly, like he was distracted.

Mina blinked, but then shrugged. It wasn't exactly a satisfying answer, but he seemed distracted. He was bound to be preoccupied, what with everything that had gone over the last few days, the mysterious supplies, and him trying to figure out where to find this mechanical girl.

On top of the depression and everything else on his mind. She couldn't blame him for being distracted.

Still, that didn't mean that she was a particular fan of the idea of walking around in silence.

"You uh, you think Bakugou's doing okay back there?" Mina asked, glancing behind her. Of course, the rest of the group was long out of sight, but there was at least a small part of Mina that half expected to see an explosive blast erupt into the sky from the site.

Mostly she was just trying to start a conversation. She wasn't all that worried about her friends. They could all handle themselves, but so far, the walk had been quiet. Unusually quiet.

Mina had opted to go along with Izuku to find this girl for two reasons – Reason number one being that she wanted to make sure that he would be okay. His many, many issues right now meant that she would feel so much better if he was with someone at all times to make sure that he was okay, and if given the choice, she would prefer to be that person.

Reason two was simply because she didn't feel safe around Kirishima's group. And after the stunt that they all pulled, she doubted that she ever would. Before the incident, she was weary of him, given that he did outright attack Izuku before, but over time, he seemed to mellow out, and Izuku explained that the two of them seemed to have reached a mutual understanding.

Of course, that turned out to be complete garbage.

She didn't trust them. She wasn't going to make the mistake of letting her guard down again, and was almost convinced that they were playing some kind of long game, and planned to screw something up somehow at some point. She couldn't prove it, but she had a feeling.

And the time to not trust her instincts had long passed.

Though right about now, as she and Izuku walked past another crowd of people who stopped everything they were doing to watch the two of them walk by, she was starting to regret not telling her instincts to shut up and settle down. Hence why she was so eager to try and talk to Izuku. A conversation would give her something to else to focus on other than the looks she was getting. And she didn't particularly care what the topic was.

"Kacchan's a hothead, but he wouldn't start any trouble." Izuku responded calmly. He'd been at Yuuei and always someone was giving him a sideways glare. He was more than used to it, and adapted quickly. Maybe he took comfort in the fact what he did was to help those around him. "He's not the kind of person to start a fight unless he's got a good reason to. I trust him."

The pink girl nodded. For all the many flaws Katsuki had, he was a very… What she called a 'Just aggressor'. He had a personality that was as pleasant as sandpaper, but he never went out of his way to start fights. He always seemed to understand when the time for action was, and refrained from using violence when it wasn't the time to.

Plus, he'd been friends with Izuku for most of his life. And Izuku trusted him, and Mina trusted his judgement.

Still, it didn't mean he was infallible.

"Guess I'm more worried about if Kirishima and his group give him a reason to start a fight..."

"I'm not sure they will."

"I thought you didn't trust them?" Mina blinked. Just yesterday he had talked about wanting to smash a shovel over Kirishima's head, and had almost broken down over how guilty he felt after thinking how easy it would be. So, in the space of a day, he'd gone from that, to putting those suspicions to the side?

"I…. Don't. But… I…. I don't know." He sighed. He was trying to find the words, but they weren't there. It was almost like he was picking the words he was saying carefully, even though they meant nothing at all. "I just don't think that they're going to try anything again. I can't explain it."

Mina blinked. Today was turning into one filled with unsatisfying answers.

"Right…" She muttered, before letting out another sigh. "So, what's the plan with this girl, anyway? We've already got a pretty good idea of what we're doing with the orphanage, don't we?"

"I thought it might just be good to see where she works." Izuku replied.

"Where she – Wait, aren't we going to speak to her?"

Izuku shook his head. "Right now, I think it'd just be a good idea to get a feel for her work. I don't want to risk her finding out about The First Generation. I know the chances are small… But I'm not in the mood for taking risks right now."

In truth, a part of Izuku did was to introduce himself to this 'Hatsume' character. From what Yaoyorozu had told him, she sounded eccentric, but far more focused on the possibilities of enhancing Quirks through technology than she was about hiding and living a quiet life. She sounded like someone he wanted to be on good terms with. Someone that he knew that he could fall back and rely on in case The First Generation needed some upgrades. Maybe she could even develop equipment for them.

But the risk was too great. Right now, anyway.

For one thing, there couldn't be any doubt that Hatsume knew that Yaoyorozu was helping with the construction project outside Yuuei – She had provided the Creation Quirk user with the blueprints with explanations, and Izuku couldn't be sure that she was the type of person to just give that kind of thing away without asking questions. And Izuku's face was well known throughout the school – Hatsume could put two and two together, and inadvertently bring it up.

And considering that Mina was there with him, that would go against Yaoyorozu's wishes to remain anonymous.

Frankly, he wished that he'd thought of that before letting Mina come along. This train of logic had only just hit him as he considered the implications of meeting with her.

Secondly, while the risk was minimal, it made sense to Izuku that him going alone would pose the least risk to The First Generation. Strength-Enhancement Quirks were common, whereas Acid wasn't. And even though they had gone to extreme lengths to help hide the nature of Mina's Quirk, they had to take every single step of vigilance to keep their identities secret.

Hatsume was apparently smart. So assuming she watched the news and looked closely enough, she might find something to latch onto, which could end up exposing Mina.

That wasn't something Izuku wanted to happen whatsoever.

So as much as it irritated him, right now, he was focused solely on observing this girls work, and not interacting with her in any way.

* * *

Toshinori had known that there was a high chance that he'd end up here as a possible witness.

Frankly, there hadn't been any doubt about it at all. When he first gave his blessings to Izuku about The First Generation, he knew that there was a near certainty that he'd find himself sitting amongst a board of Quirkless directors and leaders. He knew that they'd come to him when they wanted to know something about the Quirked. He might have possession of a Quirk – Or rather, the remnants of one, not that he made a distinction, mind – But he was still respected as a community leader.

Or as well respected as someone with a Quirk could be.

The people he met with were civil with him, and let him speak his mind, frankly and without protest. They took his ideas and his suggestions into consideration, and listened when he had something to say.

But that didn't necessarily mean that they weren't suspicious of him.

Born without a Quirk, Toshinori knew that when he accepted one, the looks of passive neutrality that he got in the streets would turn into anger and fear. He accepted the power because he truly did believe in what he preached – Those who had Quirks and those that didn't could live with one another just fine. There wasn't any need for any of the violence and the persecution.

He just wished that the leaders of such communities shared his optimistic views.

"You're telling us that you don't have even a single idea – Not even anyone you can suspect – Of being these 'First Generation'… People?"

"I've already said that. Several times. I don't have any idea who they could be."

The last few days had been a confusing and hectic batch for the previous One For All holder, and it was with regret that he'd had to push his stresses onto his staff as well. The authorities had been monitoring the actions of The First Generation ever since Midoriya's – Or publicly, Maverick's – message had been televised. Authorities who wanted these masked assailants taken down, before they did any more damage.

And as dirty as it made the older man feel – He found himself able to understand the situation.

"Mr. Yagi, you are aware that we have a corpse on our hands, correct?" The Commissioner General of the Police Force made his question towards Toshinori flat and, if one interpreted it as such, accusatory.

"I am aware of that."

"So you are aware that withholding any potential information would be akin to hiding information that could lead to the arrest of a murderer."

"I don't know if I'd call it akin." Another member of the board said. "Isn't that exactly what's going on here?"

"That implies that what caused all that damage was Human to begin with. But murder is still murder."

"I don't see any logic in continuing to insinuate that we're hiding something."

Toshinori turned his head to look at Aizawa. Those were the first words that the Erasure Quirk user had said throughout the meeting, and that were flat and straight to the point – Although, one could use those exact words to describe Aizawa himself.

Unlike Toshinori, Aizawa had made his contempt for this entire meeting as clear as possible. Whereas Toshinori was well dressed and groomed, Aizawa sat not even in a suit, but the same tracksuit clothing he always wore. He left his hair unkempt - He made no effort whatsoever to look presentable for this formality.

As far as he was concerned, that was what it was. Or rather, that was what their presence here was.

Several seconds passed, before a separate board member broke the silence. "Mr. Aizawa, is there anything you'd like to add?"

The long-haired man lazily looked towards the man whom had spoken. A middle aged, Quirkless businessman whom had accumulated enough power to be considered to attend such a meeting. No doubt, what The First Generation were doing would in some way affect his business. Aizawa didn't make any effort to hide his contempt.

Although he didn't make any effort to hide his contempt for anyone on the board.

"We've been at this for two days now." The Erasure-Quirk user stated plainly. "And both days, you've been treating this more as an interrogation as opposed to an investigation. You're not looking into areas that The First Generation could be. Instead, you have this idea that we'll know exactly who they are because we're Quirked as well."

"This has nothing to do with your status as Quirked individuals." The Commissioner General stated. "This is about figuring out who these masked maniacs are and bringing them to justice. Public usage of Quirks is strictly against the law – "

"A law you introduced after several of our students fought back an attack by Quirkless bikers."

" – A law which is to be universally upheld by any and all Quirked individuals."

"You put that law in place to prevent the basic self-defense rights of anyone targeted because of their Quirks."

"This isn't a debate about civil liberties." The businessman said. "The fact of the matter is, when The First Generation fought that… Whatever that giant, purple… Thing, was, that they wound up destroying nearly an entire street, and most of a skyscraper!"

"That, and Yuuei is the biggest concentration of Quirked individuals in the entire country! It would be easy for radicalization to start there!"

"And who's fault would that be?" Aizawa flatly asked the same board that had made Quirked attendance mandatory.

"Aizawa!" Toshinori hissed. Aizawa didn't even give him a look.

While his delivery was certainly in need of some work, there wasn't any denying that his points were valid – This was the very same board that permitted Yuuei to be built, under the logic that it would keep the Quirked out of the way and hopefully reduce the number of violent incidents. This was the same board that, under that logic, decided to make the attendance of the school mandatory for those within the age range.

Several of the board members gave each other uncomfortable glances.

"The goal here isn't to pass blame around. We're simply trying to figure out who these people are, so we can prevent more events like what happened with that creature. We're dealing with people who are, by every definition of the law, murderers, and they need to be treated as such." The head of the board said.

"We've said that we don't know who they are. What more do you want from us?"

"I wouldn't put it quite so bluntly." Toshinori glared towards his companion out of the corner of his eye, before returning his gaze to the board. "But Aizawa is correct. We don't know anything about the situation, and we don't condone them whatsoever. This feels less like an investigation, and far more like we're being put on trial for crimes we haven't committed."

"I wonder why that could be." Aizawa commented, once more with brutal honesty.

Over the past two days, the scruffy man had been subjected to all kinds of flawed rhetoric and arguments that fell apart if one thought about them for more than five minutes. These weren't people who were thinking rationally. They were people who had a problem that they wanted to get rid of, but didn't have even the first idea on how to do it. They were people who didn't understand the issue that they were facing, so they called in the first people that they could think of who might have some idea.

Conveniently forgetting that they were in part responsible for the borderline sub-human treatment of those with Quirks.

They dressed it up behind pretty words like justice, but they were, as far as Aizawa could tell, self-serving. They all felt threatened, for a variety of reasons that the Erasure Quirk user couldn't even guess, and wasn't sure that he wanted to know. Maybe some of them were just legitimately concerned about the upholding of the law, and maybe some of them were legitimately concerned about the safety of the Quirkless, but anyone who could see with both eyes clearly could see that the majority were here to serve their interests.

He didn't make any effort to make it hidden that this was what he thought of the executives and leaders sat before him.

And his cynical bluntness seemed to shake those on the board.

"…Perhaps we should take a break until tomorrow." Suggested the head of the board. "We can collect our thoughts." He stared at Aizawa. "And cool our heads." Back to the rest of the board. "And come at this with a fresh perspective."

Murmurs of agreement came from one board member after another, and within less than a minute, they were all standing up and making their way out of the room, some doing their best to give Aizawa as wide a berth as possible.

Once the room was empty, the scruffy man turned to his superior. "We spend maybe two or three hours a day here before they decide that that's enough. There's not a lot of logic to be spoken of here."

"It's hardly surprising when you scare the hair off them." Toshinori sighed. "The first thing you say in two days, and you take every opportunity to insult them?"

"There's not any point in waltzing around with the issue." Aizawa replied plainly. "They think we're responsible for The First Generation."

"Acting defensive will only increase their suspicion."

"Our only alternative is to admit and accept the guilt to something we don't do." The bearded man stood up from his own seat and shoveled his hands into his tracksuits pockets. His black eyes lazily looked over the board table with a mixture of contempt and absolute indifference. "There's only so much of that rhetoric I can stomach. These meetings are a waste of time as it is."

"They're meant to help improve relations between us and the Quirkless."

"Do you honestly believe that?"

Toshinori opened his mouth to insist that he did, to protest Aizawa's cynical view of the proceedings, and to tell him that he was reading too much into things.

No words came out though.

He had known Aizawa for some time, ever since he had decided to become a teacher, and ended up as the Headmaster of Yuuei. He had been there when Aizawa had been selected due to his Erasure Quirk, and it's inherent ability to prevent other Quirks from activating. The perfect Quirk in case some students got rebellious. He'd developed a professional, and ever so slightly personal relationship with the logic-driven individual, respecting his teaching abilities, and his objective eye. It was that objective eye that had made him come to trust his colleague's judgement.

In the years that they had known each other, Aizawa hadn't steered him wrong when it came to a judgement call. Even when it conflicted with his own opinion.

Though there was a difference between his own opinion, and what he longed the reality to be.

The skinny man sighed, and let his head fall. "No. I guess I don't. To build a bridge, there has to be some effort from both sides. But they seem quite content of interrogating us." A pause. "What do you make of their reasoning?"

"From their perspective, it's an obvious and logical conclusion. Like they said, we have the largest concentration of Quirked individuals at Yuuei." Those were points Aizawa would concede, and on the surface, they made sense, and were enough to justify some of their accusations. "However, that's the only thing that they have. They're not looking at other possibilities, or even think that there's a possibility that The First Generation members are outside of Yuuei. We're the biggest target, and there's not a huge amount that we can do to defend ourselves. It wouldn't surprise me if their accusations are just to convince themselves and the press that they're doing something about the 'Heroes'."

Once more, Toshinori sighed, and nodded. As usual, Aizawa's observations and reasoning made perfect sense. Painfully so.

"I suppose we should be thankful that they don't know about the incident with Midoriya and Kirishima." He mulled. "They could probably spin it off as a training exercise if they wanted to."

"Or the work Midoriya is doing outside Yuuei's front gate."

Aizawa's tone didn't give anything away. He was as blunt and emoteless as usual. Yet there was something about how he said it that gave away something. Something small and something tiny, but there was something about what he said that made Toshinori pause.

"Do you have an issue with what Midoriya's doing?" He asked. He posed it as a simple question of curiosity, with a tone that was innately intrigued by the answer. He couldn't be sure how well that would fool Aizawa though.

"My issue is that I don't know what he's doing." Aizawa answered plainly. "He could be trying to make a Colosseum for all we know. And there's the incident with him being expelled."

"His expulsion is temporary." Toshinori stated firmly. "At least until we can be sure of the situation. He volunteered to be expelled so we could claim ignorance on the incident with Kirishima."

This phrasing made Aizawa pause.

And then blink.

"Interesting thing for him to volunteer to be expelled for. As far as I know, it's an internal incident. Why did he volunteer to leave Yuuei if there was no reason to suspect that the incident would be made public?"

For a moment, Toshinori mentally punched himself in the gut for using such a flawed reason to try to explain Izuku's behavior. If there was anyone on the planet that wasn't going to work on, it was going to be on Aizawa. He'd pick apart every reason he gave until he could find a solid thread of logic that made sense and that he could accept – Which normally ended up being the truth. He wasn't an easy man to lie to.

"He thought it was too risky a chance to take." It was a simple cover up, and hopefully one that didn't cause Aizawa's brain to turn too much. Quickly, Toshinori added, "Uh, besides, he also says that with him expelled, what he does wont be applicable to Yuuei as a whole. We can claim to have washed our hands of him."

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Aizawa summed up.

"That's exactly the logic young Midoriya used."

Externally, the answer seemed to satisfy Aizawa. He simply nodded, and turned on his heels to exit the room, and head back to the school which he called his home.

Internally though, his brain was still working.

And it knew that Toshinori Yagi wasn't telling him the whole truth.

* * *

It was a small gadget that Mei had conceived when she first began to attend Yuuei. When not in her classes, she had claimed almost an entire workshop as her own, and had begun to craft all manner of devices that were mostly experimental, but some had a few practical appliances.

Some of her classmates compared her to that of a mad scientist as depicted in spy movies, and it wasn't an entirely unfair comparison. She did create – Or at least try – Many things a fictional spy would use. Grappling hooks, capture nets, and armor. The difference was, Mei had little interest in espionage and using her 'babies' for that sort of role. At least, not right now.

No, she invented simply for the sake of inventing. Because she thought something looked cool, and because she wanted to make it herself.

Several of her previous designs had failed, and given how simply one suspected it would be to make, it would be easy to write Mei off as a failure of an inventor. Who couldn't create a pair of uniquely designed goggles, but still tried to make entire suits of armor?

Of course, in her case, these goggles had to be modified to better work with her Quirk.

Zoom let her view things with a far closer eye, and her goggle were designed to help her make more accurate judgement based on what she saw – Like an analysis's reading, but for a small set of goggles with the `computing power of a tower. These weren't just simple goggles that she wanted to make. These were going to be her goggles.

And she wanted them to be perfect.

So she had worked, long and hard, experimented with different designed until she found one that looked comfortable, and then created a prototype, which she tested out. It needed to be tweaked, but for the most part, they would suit her just fine. Next came the requirement to create something with enough computing power, that could be fit into something so small. She thanked her lucky stars that computing technology had come a long was before she was born. She had plenty of schematics and blueprints to teach herself with, and then try to replicate. She got the device she needed down to no bigger than the fingernail on her thumb. Next came interfacing, and then the hard part. Making the device work alongside her Quirk.

Plenty of trial and error followed. Experimentation with the interface to see if she could rearrange the size of the text to see if it would fit in within her eyesight. The made it smaller in some cases, larger in others. She tried algorithms and other experiments to see what would suit her. Many failed, and many goggles ended up being scrapped.

To many, it would have been demoralizing. But to Mei, it was a learning experience – After all, one learned far more from failure than from success. And failure was no deterrent to her at all – Once she failed, she jumped right back in.

This time though, she had it. She was sure of it.

Built with everything that she had learned over the last few attempts, new creations, designs, and developments. Fail-safe's, and sextuplet checked for flaws and potential oversights. She was certain that these goggles were the pair.

Before she tried them on though, something caught her eye.

It was brief, and just for a moment, but she could have sworn that she had seen… Something.

Something green and black and pink in the corner of her eye.

Reflexively, she turned her head to the direction she had seen these colors. They were by the door. She went to search, but found nothing.

She blinked, and decided that she had been tricked by her eyes. And that she probably needed another cup of coffee.

And then she put on her new set of goggles.

* * *

Hatsume was eccentric. There wasn't any doubt about that. There couldn't be any question that she was…. Certainly not a conventional individual.

Just watching her for a few moments revealed that. Fast, yet detailed in what she was doing. Creative, and thorough. It was hard to guess what even a tenth of all the devices that cluttered the room even were supposed to do. There were a bunch of projects that she either never finished, or gave up on, or blew up in her face, but she didn't seem to let that discourage her.

He'd only gotten a short glance of her and her work.

But he'd gotten what he needed.

* * *

 **This chapter is a bit more of a filler one – Not much happened, except for some set up for later on. Mei has always been an interesting character in relation to FG. I'm planning some really cool stuff with her, and with a few others.**

 **There's honestly a lot of characters I really want to play with, and FG is a story where I feel like I can play with all of them. Current MHA chapters with 1B make me excited as hell for what I've got planned for them – It's so much material I can use! And I'm finally getting around to using that material! I have big plans for the next chapter or two, so I hope you're looking forward to them – And seeing a development that I think very few of you expect.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this short connecting chapter – And that I'll be able to see you all next time. See ya!**


	30. The Reason

"I don't like it. I don't like this one bit."

"Yeah, but when's the last time you liked anything?"

"I liked watching Deku throw that blond asshole into a wall. That shit was cathartic."

If there was ever one thing that Katsuki was openly bad at, it was forgiveness. He held grudges, and he was quick to pick fights with those whom had wronged him. He didn't forget when people treated him and those he gave a damn about poorly. And he made damn sure that those who treated them that way didn't forget it either. If he had his way, he'd either never speak to those he held grudges against, or he'd hit them with as powerful an explosion as his Quirk would allow to get them as far away from him as physically possible.

So it was no surprise he didn't like Kirishima and his group being involved in the construction project.

Though his dislike and distrust were certainly understandable when it came to the red-haired Hardening Quirk user. That part wasn't just rampant paranoia. Kirishima had been directly responsible for no small part of stress and concern for Katsuki's friend group, and had lied to their faces on top of that. Katsuki remembered him walking up to him and claiming to have made peace with them, and offering his hand in peace with him - He was fucking furious at himself for ever believing that, and he wasn't going to make that same mistake again.

Izuku made good points when he explained his logic to the Explosion Quirk user though - Without his and his followers' help, it was going to be absolutely impossible to make anything even remotely livable by their self-imposed deadline – Which was also the same date Izuku had to be out of the dorms, according to Yuuei's rules

That, and they had Quirks that would be suitable to helping get everything sorted, especially if Monoma was going to be true to his word, and could get access to the Ishiyama's Cement Quirk.

Regardless of if he liked it or not, they would be an enormous help. A necessary evil, Izuku said. Although part of Katsuki wondered if he actually believed that last part, or if this was another one of his idealistic tendencies flaring up again instead of common sense.

"Well, think about it like this." Uraraka said, holding up a single finger as she made her point. "After tomorrow, you won't have to deal with them again."

Tomorrow. Tomorrow was the day that Monoma - The Copying Quirk user whom had been about fifty-percent to blame for the entire expulsion incident - Was being let out from his dorm-room suspension. Kirishima claimed that he was willing to help, that he could find Ishiyama-sensei, Copy his Quirk, and then single-handedly construct the entire orphanage in just a few moments. The logic used was certainly sound.

But Katsuki didn't trust it for a moment.

Granted, he didn't know what Monoma could possibly do to sabotage the project. There was the risk of him turning around and using Cement to attack their group again, but he wasn't sure what they would think to accomplish. A random act of violence would only serve to hinder him, and even if he was as… Deluded as rumours indicated, he doubted that the Copy Quirk user was an extremist quite yet.

They weren't fundamentalists. They were just idiots.

That said, he was weary. Exceedingly weary. He had let his guard slip once before, and it had ended up with that shitty-haired bastard getting the drop on him. He wasn't going to do that again.

The Explosion Quirk User and the Zero Gravity Quirk user had made their way to their floor in the dorm building, and found themselves being given a wide berth by their housemates. In the last week, they had gotten somewhat used to it, even though Uraraka did admit that it made her feel rather isolated from people, especially those that she had considered her friends. Jirou, she hadn't seen since she left the dorms, and Tsuyu seemed to be doing everything in her power to avoid running into the brunette. Uraraka couldn't understand why.

Others just seemed to make effort to avoid crossing paths with her. Hagakure had done once, but she'd quickly backtracked the moment she realized. What was at play here, Uraraka didn't know. Guilt or intimidation, of course, but was that seriously enough to make them avoid _her?_

Katsuki didn't face the same internal struggles as his friend did. Unlike her, he didn't socialize outside their group much, and so he didn't find being given space by his housemates all that much of a negative thing. If anything, all it meant was that he didn't have to put up with peoples shit as much.

It also meant that they could talk about what was going on without winding up overheard as much.

"You have any ideas where those supplies might've come from?" Katsuki asked, once he had checked around and saw there was no one to hear him.

The supplies were just something that the Explosion Quirk user couldn't get out of his head. It was way, way too perfect, too good to be true. He was certain that there was some kind of catch, but Izuku didn't seem to believe him, for God knew what reason. If he didn't know the guy better, he'd suspect that he was involved in some way in getting the materials, but he dismissed that idea rapidly.

While the materials were clean, that didn't mean that they were necessarily safe, or that there wasn't some kind of catch to using the stuff. But it seemed that he was the only one who was this particularly concerned about it – And while he would admit to being more cautious than most, given his history with people finding ways to stab him in the back, he wasn't paranoid. There were reasons to be concerned about this.

Uraraka paused for a moment, quickly going over all the information that she had in her head. She shrugged. "No clue. I don't get how someone could have gotten all of that stuff here in one night. Or why they'd bring it… Or how they didn't wake us all up while dropping it off." She blinked, and paused. "You couldn't find anything wrong with it, could you? Like, no small microphones or…. Anything dangerous?"

Katsuki growled lightly. "If there is something like that, I couldn't find it." Saying so almost felt like he was admitting defeat.

"So… Maybe it's…. Just someone who wants to help then?"

"Like who? Who the hell even knows what we're doing out there? And how the crap would they move all that shit in the middle of the night without anyone noticing them?" Unless someone had been bragging about what was going on to the rest of the school, no one outside the walls should know. The group had kept their project mostly to themselves, to prevent the Quirkless from learning about their project for as long as possible.

Whoever it was, they knew exactly what was being made though. They had all the exact numbers of things needed to make a building like this, access to all sorts of industrial equipment, and then some. Whoever had delivered the materials knew exactly what was being made, piece for piece.

And apparently had the resources to spare, and the equipment to move it all.

Just another mystery surrounding the whole operation.

The point was valid, and Uraraka didn't seem to have any response to it. She just tilted her head, puffed up a cheek, and folded her arms, the cogs turning in her mind as she tried to consider what explanations there might be, though she had about as many as Katsuki did.

"That's not the only weird thing I've noticed either." The red-eyed teenager went on. "Deku just happened to find some sort of designer or… Whatever the fuck he said that person he went to check out was today, the same day all that material arrived? And him and Yaoyorozu – Was it just me, or did those two seem to be pretty fucking chummy-chummy today?"

"Careful, Katsuki." The brunette broke from her thoughtful pout and shot a smirk his way. "Anyone would think you're getting jealous."

" _Don't fucking make this weird, round-face."_ He snapped, before narrowing his vision. "You've noticed it as well, right? Don't fuckin' lie to me and say that things've been completely normal this last week."

Uraraka's playful grin faded after a couple of seconds, and she sighed and felt her head tilt forwards into a slump. She couldn't deny that the last week had been… Unusual, to say the very least. Izuku's behavior, the choices he made… Anyone with a pair of eyes could see that he was in a completely different frame of mind than he normally was. And Katsuki was right. Odd things had been happening around the project. She didn't know what to make of it.

Her mouth opened to say something.

"Hey, you guys!"

One brief, amusing split second made Katsuki and Uraraka look at one another with absolute and total confusion as, from their perspective, Mina's voice had come out of Uraraka's mouth. They both quickly realized that instead of the pink-skinned girl apparently becoming amazing at throwing her voice, she was rushing down the same pathway they had just come from, and was calling out to them.

The result made Uraraka both sigh and chuckle. "Oh, Ashido."

"You alright?" In true Katsuki fashion, the aggressive tone of his voice was undermined by his genuine concern for his friend's well-being.

Mina seemed to have run all the way here from… Wherever it was that she had run from. She was out of breath, and needed a moment to recapture it. Given how athletic she was, that in itself said something. Additionally, her hair seemed to be a puffed-up mess, and she was sweating. The sweat made individual threads of hair stick together, creating thicker, curlier threads, some sticking out, and some stuck against her pink skin. The hair could have been a result of running while in the wind, the sweat, from the activity. Just how long had she been running?

"I… I need to… Talk to you guys..." Mina said, between taking deep breaths. "S… Sorry. I-I had to run here… F-From the Nurses office…"

"The nurses office?" Katsuki raised an eyebrow. "How fucking fast did you run? That's not even a ten-minute walk from here!"

"How'd you even know where we were?" Uraraka asked, equally puzzled.

"Saw you outside… Damn elevators..."

The Acid Quirk user glanced around, not seeing anyone in their immediate surroundings. Though she couldn't be certain that there wasn't anyone in earshot. It was a big building, and that meant there could be people just about anywhere. And this wasn't exactly something she felt everyone needed to know.

"…Inside my room." She said, wiping her brow, and then squeezing past the two others.

Katsuki and Uraraka looked at one another with slightly confused expressions, and then turned to follow.

They weren't too far from their rooms anyway, so it wasn't a long walk. Mina quickly opened her door, and allowed her friends to enter it before she did. Once they were in, she entered the room herself, locked the door behind her, and sighed.

Thanks to the Head pulling strings, they did have this floor to themselves, so they didn't need to worry that much about being overheard. Still, it was better, in Mina's head, not to take any unnecessary risks.

"What's going on here, Raccoon Eyes?"

A small sigh left Mina's lips, and she looked up at the two confused teens now looking at her like they were expecting the worst possible news. To be entirely honest, Mina wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing by coming to these two. It didn't feel like her place to say anything, and the Nurse was doing everything in her power to do what she could. Doctor-Patient confidentiality was involved, right?... Then again, she wasn't a doctor.

More than that though, this was a basic matter of privacy. And she knew exactly the kind of person she was dealing with when it came to Izuku. He didn't want anyone to worry about him.

Wanting something didn't make it so, though.

"…It's about Midori." Mina said with another sigh. She saw their expressions change. Quickly, she reassured them. "It's nothing serious… Well… It's… H-He's not hurt. Physically, he's okay… As okay as he can be anyway – "

"For the love of fuck, what's going on?!" Katsuki demanded.

"…I'm worried about him." The pink girl stated. She didn't say more than that.

To the confusion of Katsuki and Uraraka.

"What – We're all worried about him."

"What, d'you think we just write him off when he's not in plain fucking sight?"

"That's not what I mean. I mean he's… Troubled. And he's hurting himself with all this work. And I…" Mina paused for a moment, feeling her teeth bite down on the inside of her lower lip. A hand reached into her pocket, and then it remained there.

Was this the right thing to do? Her head was telling her that it wasn't.

Her heart was telling her that it was the only way things could get better… Or even stand a chance of getting better.

This wasn't something that if they ignored it, it would go away. This wasn't something that if they left it to Izuku, he would be able to resolve internally. She feared that now, it was far too serious. He was suffering in silence, the only reason that she knew was because she literally forced him to confront it. If she hadn't, for all she knew, he could still be wandering around without even these.

Her fingers felt stiff… But she forced them to grip onto her pocket's contents.

From her pockets, she pulled out a single plastic containers. It was marked 'Anti-Depressants'.

"I took him to see Nurse Chiyo." Mina quickly explained. "He's not taking them without prescription. This one's all empty, and he's got another pack in his room." She handed it over to Katsuki, who was looking at the packet with a mixture of confusion and horror. Uraraka's expression was similar.

How couldn't they be? They hadn't had even the slightest idea that Izuku was going through a stage of clinical depression until just now.

"…When the hell did this happen?" Katsuki asked, his voice noticeably less loud, and less aggressive.

"Just… A few days ago. Around the same time Kirishima's group joined in… Same day, actually."

"Fuckin' figures. Even when he isn't trying to literally kill one of us, he still finds a way to make our lives miserable."

"I… I don't think Kirishima is responsible for this one." Uraraka looked at the packet, and then towards Mina. "…This is about the Nomu thing, isn't it?"

"Honestly… I think there's a bit of both involved." Mina explained solemnly. She didn't want to go into what Izuku had told her, about wanting to smash Kirishima's head in. That was something she intended to keep personal. "That's when his behavior changed the most dramatically… I… I thought it would get better if he got… Something to help him, but… It's not worked out that way… At least, not fast enough."

Things made more sense now to the Explosion and Zero Gravity Quirk users. Way too much sense.

The Izuku both of them had known wasn't quite there anymore. He was still the same guy underneath, but what was on the surface now was layers and layers of signs. His obsession with the orphanage project, how little he cared to get sleep, how he was pushing himself beyond all measure, why he ate so little…

These were all people who had known Izuku for a long time. She would have included Todoroki, but Mina had seen the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user speaking to the aforementioned black-haired teen, and decided against it. They could inform Todoroki later. Besides, right now, these were people that knew Izuku for much longer than either him or Mina did. They were people who Izuku trusted. Who trusted him…

Who cared about him and what happened to him.

"…You said you came from Nurse Chiyo's office?" Katsuki asked. The word to describe how his words sounded couldn't be anything more than a mutter. He was quiet, and his words sounded – Almost paradoxically for him – Calm. "What were you doing there?"

"I… I wanted to know if she had any suggestions for helping him. Something that she could recommend that might make things… Easier on him. The pills don't seem to have helped much, so I spoke to her. She said they can sometimes take a little while to kick in. I thought maybe she'd have something that could help him immediately."

"She give you anything?"

"…She just said to talk to him, and try to get him to… Talk back."

Not especially helpful advice, especially if they wanted… Any kind of immediate gratification. But they all understood that, unfortunately, that wasn't how something like this worked.

Even if, by some miracle, Izuku wasn't _technically_ clinically depressed, there wasn't any getting around the face that guilt was etched all over his face. They all knew how guilty he felt, and how much he wished he could change how things went with the Nomu… Thing that he'd killed. Maybe because of the Kirishima incident, and the building of the orphanage, they had just… Let that guilt slip their minds.

Until now, it had been easy to see Izuku's obsession as being him pushing himself out of passion, or because the incident with Kirishima had motivated him harder than before so he'd have a place to live. Or just his dream to help the Quirked taking root on a far larger scale.

...

"…I'm guessing you've got some kind of plan?" Uraraka asked.

Mina nodded. She did have one. A slightly circumstantial one, but the best case scenario one, she figured.

"First things first, we need to get Todoroki in on it."

* * *

The city seemed different now than it did a week ago.

Buildings felt like they were endlessly reaching up higher and higher, topping off above the stratosphere and into the expanse of space, craning over to stare back down at those down below. Streets that felt wide open before, now seemed claustrophobic and narrow. Windows felt like vantage points, and lights indicated the presence of people. What kind of people, who knew what?

It felt like a forest in an unfamiliar land, thick with dark tree trunks made out of concrete, glass and metal, that one could get lost within and never find the way out of again.

Of course, nothing had changed at all. It was the exact same city it was a week ago, and the same city it was a hundred years ago, bar a century's worth of expansion and technological improvement, it was a city that would be there long after everyone in it had gone.

But it didn't feel that way to Izuku anymore. Nor did it feel that way to Izuku.

He was hyper aware of all these small things now. Things he never would have thought about or noticed before.

Hero patrols were one of the only things that got Izuku away from the construction site. He'd been sporadic and careful with them over the last seven days, thanks to the Nomu incident. People were apprehensive about The First Generation. Keeping their heads down and focusing on the work back at Yuuei made the most logical sense. Give the Quirkless a chance to calm down, and give themselves some breathing room.

They had still been out, of course, though they were a lot more careful with how they moved around. Before, they didn't hide unless it was vital to an operation. Part of Izuku's plan was to be seen, after all. The goal was to show off Quirks and how they could be useful, and doing that without being in the public eye would be difficult. In light of the recent events though, he had decided it smarter that they try to avoid being seen in public if they can. Just for the time being.

The black-haired boy glanced around the areas on the rooftop he found himself. Being back in the city was... An unusual feeling for him. He had been around since the incident, but never back this deep into thick of the place. Somehow it all felt different. Like he was standing in the middle of a foreign country, and had no idea what the language or customs were, and he was exhausted after a long flight.

Exhaustion... Saying that he was exhausted was probably the most underwhelming way of putting it possible. The only thing that came even close to a sleeping schedule were the few naps that he would make himself to take every so often when he just could not stand up any longer. Well, he called them naps, but really, he was resting his eyes. Still fully aware and able to open them at any time. He doubted one got much rest comparable to sleep from that. An hour there, twenty minutes here. He remembered one incident where he had managed to fall 'asleep' on his feet, looking to observers that he was intently inspecting a patch of dirt by his feet. He knew he was tired, but he couldn't force himself to do anything about it.

All he could do was the best he could, and try to distract himself from his immense exhaustion.

And get hold of some stimulants the first chance he got.

Everything that the last week had been for was on the verge of completion. Monoma's suspension was supposedly up tomorrow, and that meant that if he was serious about his offer to help, the orphanage could be completed by tomorrow. Provided they got hold of the Cement Quirk as well.

A weeks-worth of physical well-being was worth it to make a place for the people who needed it, wasn't it?

To Izuku, it seemed like the fairest trade that once could make.

Especially in his case.

The group had made their way to one of their normal staging grounds - An area where they stopped, considered their options, the routes they would take, and who would go out with who – On the outskirts of the city. It was slightly deeper than they had been in the last few days, as they eased themselves back into the lives of the citizens of the city. Within a week, at this rate, they'd be back in the center, in full public sight.

Luckily, there hadn't been all that many incidents that needed the help of The First Generation during their lackluster week. Katsuki reported having to knock a few goons' heads together, and Todoroki had stopped a break in. Nothing major, although the news would have them believe that they had committed heinous crimes against Humanity that the world needed to be warned of. Luckily, nothing massive, like an attack on the scale of the Nomu had been reported either, so it seemed to balance out a bit.

From where he was standing, the city looked like a hostile place. The black-haired boy swallowed, and turned towards his group. "Uh… Okay guys. I was thinking today that Blitzkrieg, Infinity Girl and I should head into the city a bit more, to get people more used to seeing us again. I –"

"I'm going to stop you right the fuck there." Katsuki flatly stated, cutting off his friends' words entirely and immediately. Izuku blinked, twice. "I'm not going out there with you when you're like this."

There was a moment of complete and utter silence between everyone, the only sounds being the gently blowing of the find, and the sounds their clothes made as said wind hit them against their skin. Maybe it was due to the lack of rest over the last week, but it seemed to take Izuku's brain a few seconds longer than usual to process what he was being told.

"When I'm…" He was surprised by this – There wasn't any denial of that. He couldn't even begin to hide that, so he didn't make any effort to whatsoever. There wasn't anything wrong with him – What was Katsuki talking about? "L-Like what?"

"Tired as all living fuck." Katsuki folded his arms, and glared towards his childhood friend. His stance somehow spoke volumes of itself. He wasn't going to budge.

The look alone made Izuku shiver. It felt cold. Distant.

Izuku suddenly felt defensive. "I - I've managed the last week just fine!"

"Yeah, and you were on the outskirts, not jumping roof to roof between buildings fucking fifty stories high!" Katsuki's voice raised to be slightly more of a yell.

"I've…. I've gotta be honest, Maverick." Uraraka said, shaking her head. She was careful with names. "I'm with Blitzkrieg. You shouldn't go into the city without getting more rest. The police are watching out for us, remember? If you slip up because you haven't had enough sleep…"

"You'll get us all fucking shot." Katsuki frankly stated.

"I-If you thought that, why didn't you say something before we - "

"You wouldn't have fucking listened. You would've insisted that you were fucking fine and dragged us all out anyway, and fuck knows how well that would've gone for us." Izuku wanted to protest, but knew that Katsuki was right.

He probably would have.

"Raccoon Eyes'll stay here with you. I'll take Freezerburn and Infinity Girl." The blonde said, glancing towards the silent Mina, and then back again to Izuku. "We'll patrol the interior. You two can scan around the outskirts if you want, but I don't want you going fucking anywhere near the main city."

For his part, Todoroki had been more or less completely silent throughout the exchange, not offering up a single opinion of his own. Mina, equally silently, thanked her lucky stars that she'd been able to reach the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user before this entire incident went down. She had no idea how Todoroki would react to this if she hadn't explained everything to him. Although she would admit, she was curious if he would have agreed or not.

"I can make sure that they'll be fine. They won't get into any trouble." He assured Izuku.

Katsuki shot him a look – And everyone involved was unsure if it was because he was trying to be as convincing as possible, or if he was genuinely insulted by the idea of needed to be looked out for.

Either way though, the Explosion Quirk user didn't wait for anyone's permission to move out. He gave Izuku another glare, as though he was trying to warn him not to go outside the boundaries that had been set for him, and then towards Mina. Mina understood what his glare meant, and very slightly nodded towards him.

The red-eyed teen turned, and launched himself into the air with his Explosions, shooting towards the next building, and then breaking into a run towards the edge, and repeating the process, roof to roof.

Following, Uraraka turned and used her Quirk on Todoroki, and watched as the Half-Cold-Half-Hot boy jumped to the next building in pursuit of Katsuki. She looked towards both her curly haired friends one final time, and then leaped across, and followed her comrades.

Before long, the three of them had melted into the black. Not even the light from Katsuki's explosions lit the up their location within those few, short moments.

And then, Izuku and Mina were alone.

"….What just happened?" Was the first thing Izuku said to break the silence. He was kind of just standing completely still, like he was totally frozen by what had happened. He certainly hadn't expected this to happen, and absolutely not in the way than it had.

"…You wouldn't've listened if we were still at the dorms."

Izuku turned towards Mina as she spoke. The confusion carried over, but this time, there were much wider eyes, visible even through his mask and hoodie. It seemed to be the moment that Izuku locked eyes with her that he realized that she had been involved in what just happened, and that what just happened was premeditated. Not just impulsive anger on Katsuki's half.

This was something that everyone was involved with. And Mina was the only one still here.

"You wouldn't listen if we were patrolling someplace dangerous. And you wouldn't listen if the others were here. So… Here we are."

"Here we – What's this about, Ash – Alien Queen? What are you talking about?"

Now that the moment was here, Mina felt something like a grip take hold of her heart. Over the last week, she'd felt something pushing her, appealing to her, trying to get her to force Izuku to talk about this.

And now that she was here, in the moment, it felt so, so much harder than she had imagined it.

Words weren't coming easy. In her head, it was so easy to talk. Every time she'd imagined pulling Izuku aside to talk to him about how she felt, the words flowed and clearly formed together. She'd gone over what she wanted to say a hundred times, and in her mind, it always worked. Always had the intended effect. She could write ten pages of what she had to say.

Now though, the right words didn't come at all easily.

"…You're worrying me."

Those words weren't even close to the right ones, but they were all she could seem to get out. Nothing felt right, but she had to say… Something. At this point, anything would do.

Izuku didn't say anything in response. He just continued to look at her, with that same expression of confusion. Perhaps he was waiting for her to elaborate on what she meant.

So she did.

"You're… Pushing yourself way too much. You're not acting like… Well, like you, and I… I think you're going to end up seriously getting yourself hurt if you keep this up. I mean… Look at you." Her hands gestured towards his entire person. "You've barley even slept in the last week. I don't even know how – "

"Ashido."

Something about the way that he said her name made her swallow the stream of words that had been flowing freely. He wasn't using her Hero name, but her actual name. Granted, they had made certain to check that there wasn't anyone around… But it still said something about the state that he was in.

And how flatly he said it as well said something else.

There was the smallest of hints of a smile on his lips, but anyone could tell that it was a smile he was putting on, and wasn't genuine. It was forced. "…I – I appreciate the concern. Really, but I'm holding up just fine. Really. I… I think we'll all feel better once the orphanage is up and ready to go tomorrow."

No doubt it was a great deal of stress for him.

"I've… Been a bit distant, I admit. But… It's nearly done now." He widened his smile slightly. "I'll be fine after tomorrow, I'm sure."

The Quirk inheritor turned his head as soon as he finished speaking, like there wasn't anything left to discuss about the topic. In a single sentence, he'd made it abundantly clear that he wasn't interested in talking about the situation.

He said all the right things, and there was absolutely no denying the logic that he was using. On the surface, he was saying all the right things. Admitting to being distant. Acknowledging her concerns and even thanking her for them… He was fighting her without fighting her.

For the briefest of moments, Mina almost fell for it. She wanted to. She really wished that she could…

"…You're lying."

A few seconds passed, and then Izuku turned around to look at her again. This time, with narrower eyes.

"You're…. Pretending that there's nothing bothering you. That might work on the others, but you've talked to me about things. I know that you're bothered by everything that's happened over the last week." Mina inhaled. "I know you, Midori. You're not fooling me…"

She paused.

"…I just wish I'd had the sense to talk to you about it sooner."

No response.

"…You feel bad about the Nomu thing." There wasn't any point in beating around the bush with that. There was no way to bring it up without it being abrupt. "Trust me, I get that. Anyone would feel bad about…. Doing what you had to do. And… And I know that that's not the only thing, but – "

"'Doing what I had to do.'"

Izuku repeated the words heavily. Slowly, as if he was trying to read them out for the first time.

"'Doing… What I had to do.'…" The second time, they almost sounded bitter. "That makes it sound like I had no choice in the matter."

His response confused Mina. She had been there with him when he had taken the Nomu down, and she saw the options that were in front of him, and watched him as he made his. She wished that he hadn't had to make that choice… But what other options were there?

They had _talked_ about this, hadn't they? Mina remembered them talking about this, before his encounter with Kirishima.

Evidently, not enough that Izuku felt it was over.

"You… You didn't - "

"The hell I didn't." Izuku snapped, cutting off his pink companion with a sharply spoken sentence.

Mina paused, and bit the inside of her lip. If she was going to get him to open up, this was as good a place as any. "What's… What's that supposed to mean?"

The masked teenager looked Mina in the eyes, and then turned his attention towards the city, focused once more on the lights in the distance. Maybe he was trying to figure out where Katsuki, Uraraka and Todoroki were by now, hoping that there was some kind of sign that would tell him where they were.

Maybe he was looking for someplace to leap out to, to get away from this questioning. It wouldn't be hard for him. Mina didn't know if the thought crossed his mind or not. With his mask on, it was harder to tell what he was thinking and feeling.

He looked at her again from the corner of his eyes, and then back out to the city.

"…I could have done something else. There was enough time… I should have been able to think of something better than… What I ended up doing." Izuku let out a long sigh. "But I… Decided that it was a bad idea to let that Nomu… Whatever it was, go. Because I thought that if it did, it'd just happen, all over again…"

"But… That is what would've happened."

"You don't know that." Izuku responded firmly. A total contradiction to the actions he had taken back then. "You don't know that… And neither do I. For all either of us know, Shigaraki was bluffing. That Nomu incident could have been a one-time thing... We don't know."

"…Shigaraki." Mina repeated. She recognized the name. "That disintegrating-Quirk hands guy? You act like you know him. And I'm positive I've heard you talking about him once or twice, haven't I?"

"…I know him pretty well." Izuku admitted. At this point, he couldn't stop himself from talking. It was like a faucet seal had been broken, and it was now going to flow, if he wanted it to or not. "Shigaraki… Is one of the first people me and Kacchan helped when we started… Doing our helping, thing." Looking back, he didn't know how to describe whatever it was. "The guy was hostile from the beginning. He never liked the Quirkless, so, he wasn't too fond of me. But I kept pushing, trying to help him… I think he came close to killing me a few times."

Katsuki knew about this guy? Why hadn't he said anything?

"His Quirk is Decay. You saw what it can do when we ran into him. He… He has a Quirk that, even if the entire world had Quirks, his would be rejected, since it's so dangerous. He's always been hard to read… To be honest, I don't know why he ever came to Yuuei with us."

"You took him to Yuuei?... He seems a bit… Old for that."

A small, bitter laugh escaped Izuku. "You want to hear something funny about that? Shigaraki just so happens to be related to the person who gave Toshinori-sensei his Quirk!..." His eyes fell down towards his gloved hand. "…My Quirk… Quirks existed for a while before they became common. I think his mother had a Quirk before, but I'm really not sure… And even if she didn't, it's possible One For All passed along the genes needed to make Shigaraki Quirked. I don't know… But he was born with his Quirk. A toddler with a Quirk that kills anything they touch… You can guess how well that'd go, can't you?"

Mina shivered.

"We took him to Yuuei, to see Toshinori… And he stayed there. For a while. He left sometime before we met you… Guess I shouldn't be surprised that he ended up with that sort of crowd… But…" This time Izuku shivered, and his arms suddenly folded, and his hands gripped onto the opposing arms biceps, like he was trying to keep warm. "…He turned a person into that Nomu… Thing… And I killed it."

"…It can't have been easy." The pink girl said softly, almost apologetically.

The truth was, she didn't know. She had no idea how he must be feeling, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. That would mean doing what he had, and she didn't want to do anything even close to that.

"You don't understand…" Izuku sighed. Finally, he turned to look at her front on. "…Even if the Nomu wasn't alive… I still made that choice. Someone I tried to help ended up falling and ending up in… That place, and someone ended up becoming… Something completely inhuman because of it. And I still made the choice to… Do that to someone."

His eyes until this point had been somewhat shielded by his hood and mask. Now he looked up.

And the tears that were running down his cheeks became crystal clear.

"I decided that someone had to die because it would be better for a bunch of people I've never even met! I decided that persons fate based on what?! _My_ instincts? _My_ logic? Because my ideas were right?! I killed someone who didn't even have any control over their actions – I didn't even think to try to help them! I just took my knife and – " He stopped himself, covered his face with his hand, and let his entire body slump. A finger and a thumb pressed against his eyes, trying to hold back the tears of guilt and shame. "And do you know the worst part of that? I keep going back over it in my head, and if it was Shigaraki standing there, and not the Nomu… I'd still have done it…What the hell kind of a Hero gets to decide who lives and who dies? That's… That's not what I wanted Heroism to be… But that's what I've turned it into. In front of the entire country, the entire planet… That's what Heroism is now… Using Quirks to hurt people… Because I thought it was the right thing to do…"

He collapsed, and leaned against the railings.

"What kind of right do I have to complain about hurting myself?" He asked. If he was asking for an honest answer, or was speaking rhetorically, it was hard to tell. "After that… After I've gone against something that… Fundamental to what I wanted to do… What right do I have to take care of myself? If my health is what it takes to help fifty people after what I've done, what right do I have to complain?"

It wasn't the Nomu. Not exactly.

Guilt was so incredibly evident. He regretted what he had done to the Nomu, even if it wasn't alive or dead, or whatever it was. That was basic Human empathy. Of course he would feel bad for that…

But that wasn't what had stuck with him. Not especially.

Inherently, Humans were violent creatures. Quirks or not, like many predators, they were adapted and had evolved to kill. Humans possessed the intelligence and sense of community to feel bad about the killing of their fellow man, but it wasn't such a crippling guilt that it rendered everyone who had taken a life emotionally wrecked. Many would feel the guilt their whole lives… But that wasn't what had been bothering Izuku. Not to this extent.

He felt he'd betrayed the very ideals that he stood for. The very message that he wanted to use Quirks to send to people. That they weren't inherently dangerous. That they didn't need to be afraid of those who had Quirks.

Instead, he had justified their fear, by killing even something that used to be Human. He showed Quirks had violent potential. He gave the Quirkless a reason to be afraid. He went against just about every major principle that he believed in. And he didn't know how to fix it. To make it better. Or if there was even a way to make it better at all.

But he was trying.

And it didn't matter what happened to him or his body, or his health, or his mental state Compared to everything else, those things didn't matter. He didn't matter.

At least, not in his head.

Maybe it was a logic that really only made sense to him. Mina couldn't completely say she understood. Then again, she hadn't been forced to make the choices that he had. To do what he had done. Maybe this only made sense if you'd made such a blunder in your fundamental beliefs as Izuku had. Or at least, perceived to have done so.

And his personal connection to Shigaraki couldn't be helping either. And that just made that feeling that this was all his fault even more prevalent.

Mina wouldn't pretend to understand the complete intricacies – What was happening inside Izuku's mind was something people much smarter than her were going to have to debate at some point. Right now, the philosophical issues weren't even remotely what she was worried about.

"…You wanted to be a Hero to help people, didn't you?"

The One For All Inheritor looked above his finger and thumb to look at his companion. She knelt down next to him, so her knees were close to her face. As she lowered herself to his level, she took off her ski-mask and bandanna – The risk of being spotted was minimal, so it wasn't like they needed to worry much. And that aside, there were some feelings that couldn't be quite conveyed when one's face was blocked out. Intentions couldn't be conveyed as well.

And nor could honesty.

"Heroes have to make tough choices, don't they? In just a split second? And they have to do what they think is best, because…. What else can they do, right? Isn't that what you taught me?"

Izuku didn't respond. If it was because he didn't know what to say, or because he was still fighting back tears, it was hard to tell.

"Well… You were a good teacher. But, it's… Like I said. You're pushing yourself too hard. You're putting everything on you. Like everything is _your_ fault, and _you're_ the only one who can fix it. Like it's all _your_ responsibility… But it isn't just _your_ problem. You're not the only person who signed up to be a Hero, y'know." She gave him a gentle smile, though it faded fast. "…I'm not going to pretend that I know exactly what's going on for you. I really don't. I…. Honestly can't imagine…. I mean, I know I hurt my dad with my Quirk, but I don't think this is all that similar. But, I just…"

She sighed, and she suddenly grabbed hold of his hand. Both his and hers were gloved, but they could still feel one another's warmth through the fabric.

"…I know what it's like to look back on something and think that you had a choice. That you defiantly had options when you look back. And that you think you made the wrong call… I hurt my dad with my Quirk. And no, I still can't stand the guy after what he did to my horn… But it still bugs me that I used my Quirk like I did. And I used to think that there had to be some way that I could have gotten out of that mess without hurting him… But I only had a few seconds to decide."

Her hand gripped onto his harder.

"You didn't have all the time in the world. You have a few seconds to make a choice, and you made the best one that you could. And you shouldn't feel guilty for that, because… What kind of a choice is it when you don't have the time to decide what you want to do? You think you do when you look back… But you didn't really. You did what you had to do… And maybe that was wrong. And maybe it was right. I don't know… But it's not something that defines what Heroes are going to be. Not if you don't let it… And… You can't do that if you're beating yourself up like this."

Was her advice helpful? Was anything that she had to say even making the least bit of sense?

Did it have any kind of affect on him? Did it… Help?

He didn't say anything – More like he couldn't, looking at him. Like he couldn't find any words. Maybe he was speechless. If that was good or bad, Mina would have to find out once he found his voice.

She had spoken honestly, and spoken the truth about what she felt. She had explained herself as best she could. She couldn't think to do more than that…

" _Get away from me!"_

" _Hand over all your shit and I'll happily get away from you, you freak!"_

Yelling. Loud yelling.

Both Izuku and Mina froze and looked at one another – The area was supposed to be empty. It had been empty when they arrived. Had they missed someone? Or had someone entered the area while they'd been talking?

Either way, it didn't matter.

Evidently, something was going on. Someone was in trouble.

Rapidly, Mina threw her masks back on, and Izuku got up onto his feet. It wasn't hard to pinpoint the rough area where the yelling had come from – It was one of the only noises in the area, after all. And it wasn't all that far away, either. Just a few alleyways away.

Hero mode activated in both of them – Their conversation temporarily forgotten, as were their worries and concerns about everything else. Their bodies began to move, rapidly, Izuku helping Mina as the pair of them jumped from rooftop to rooftop to reach the source of the noise.

Quickly, the pair of them reached it.

There was a girl – A teenager, maybe around their age – With blonde hair that she kept up in twin ponytails, was backing up from a thug with black hair, and a knife in hand. There wasn't much else to tell from the distance that they were at already, but it was abundantly clear who the attacker was, and who the victim was.

What was the situation here? Was the girl just a victim of mugging, or did she have possession of a Quirk, and was that why she had been targeted? Or was there some other reason for this?

Then again, none of that mattered in the slightest. She was in trouble, and needed help. That was all that mattered.

"Okay," Mina said, looking towards Izuku, "How d'you wanna - "

Striking practically immediately and wasting no time at all, Izuku leaped right into action. He had active his inherited Quirk, and leaped right onto the wall of the building opposite him, using it as a launch pad to jump to the wall on the building he'd just leaped from. The jumps built up speed, and the static his Quirk made lit him up, like a beacon, catching the attention of everyone around.

The moment he built up enough speed, he struck.

His target never even had a chance to counter attack. "What the fu – "

A solid strike downwards on the top of his head sent the thug crashing into the ground below, knocking him immediately unconscious before he'd even known what hit him. A loud, crisp 'Thwack!' cracked throughout the air as boot made contact with skull, and skull made contact with concrete.

"…Do this." Mina finished her sentence, blinking twice, mostly in awe of the speed of which Izuku had taken out his opponent. It almost felt anti-climactic.

But the danger was over now, it seemed. That was what was important. She used her acid to create grabbing holes in the wall, and began to climb her way down.

Izuku seemed surprised himself, not taking his eyes off of the now knocked-out thug for a few moments in sheer shock at his easy win. He was clearly surprised with himself, but he shook his head, and forced himself to turn his attention to the girl he had just saved. "Are you alright?"

Understandably, said girl looked to be, in a single word, terrified by what had happened. She seemed to be completely froze. For what reason was unclear.

Was she petrified because of the mugger, or the person who took them out?

"I'm… I'm not going to hurt you." Izuku said, shakily. "You just… You looked like you needed help."

"You… Y-You're that... First Generation person. Maverick…" The girl spoke, though she was not comfortable, obviously.

"I… Yeah. I'm Maverick."

"…You're like me."

"Like you?"

The girl opened her mouth slightly, to show off her teeth – Each one sharp to the point. The earlier question was answered – She was Quirked. Her physical mutations were easy to hide, but were dead giveaways if anyone saw them. And when talking, that could certainly end up being difficult. A clearer picture of what had happened made its way into both Izuku and Mina's minds.

"…What's your name?" The teenage Hero asked.

"T… Tatami. Tatami Nakagame."

"You're Quirked… Do... What're you doing out here?"

"I… I just wanted to get something to eat."

"Do you live around here?"

"Not… Really."

"…Do you have anywhere to go?"

"…No."

"…You avoided the registration with Yuuei, didn't you? You've been hiding out here?"

"…" Her silence was basically a confirmation. She was homeless, hiding away from the registration, and from the police.

Her clothes were certainly an indicator of that was well. What was probably a bright blue shirt at some point was now little more than a dulled, dirty dark blue. Her jeans weren't much better either, but presumably they were the best that she had to hand. Rips and tears, either from injury, or from simple rotting away from not being washed regularly.

Forced to live like this because the rest of the world decided that she was somehow less than Human.

…What made her different than the orphans he was building a place to live for?

The black-haired boy looked towards Mina, and then back towards the girl, Tatami. "…Listen, if you're…. Looking for help, I know a place."

Tatami's ears seemed to perk up.

"If you go to Yuuei… You'll find a bunch of people outside the walls who just made a building. Talk to them at around Midday… They'll help you…. I… I guess you could call them 'The Resistance' if you wanted, but, they'll do everything they can to help. They're not affiliated with Yuuei – Well… The leader of the place isn't, anyway. You don't have to worry about the registration. They'll protect you."

It was hard to read what her expression was. It didn't change much as Izuku explained to her where to go. It certainly might not have been an appealing prospect to someone who had made the effort to avoid Yuuei… But it was the best he could do.

"…Well, uh… It's just an idea. Just… Stay safe. And, try to avoid going on the main streets. I'll… Deal with this guy."

The blonde nodded, and turned around, making her way down the alleyway as quickly as she could. Evidentially, the presence of the notorious Self-proclaimed Heroes had made her nervous. Understandably so, given the news coverage of them.

Mina put her hand on Izuku's shoulder and patted him slightly. "Well that went… Pretty well, I'd say."

"Well? I scared the hell out of her…" Izuku slumped, and sighed.

"Yeah… But you saved her. And… That's what a Hero should do, isn't it?"

"I suppose…" Izuku's eyes fell onto the thug he knocked out. "…I guess we should… Tip off the police or something. Tie this guy up, and tie him to a lamppost or something."

"Yeah…"

"…Hey… Ashi... Mina?"

"Yeah?"

Words didn't follow. Instead, what followed was Izuku grabbing hold of his friend, and pulling her into the biggest hug that he could physically muster. Somehow it felt weaker than other hugs the pair of them had shared, but it was one that was much more vulnerable, and Mina could tell, but more comforting for the poor, stressed, tired boy she now found resting his head on her shoulder. Maybe a hug was all he needed. Or maybe their talk made him want one.

Maybe it was just how he needed to express his gratitude, or maybe it was just because their talk made him feel weak. Or maybe he was even just celebrating saving someone who needed saving.

She hugged him back all the same. There wasn't any need for them to exchange words.

"Hey!"

Both parties broke apart from one another as the familiar voice of the girl they had just saved filled up the alleyway. She was stood just at one of the corner points before it lead into another passage, perhaps to where the Quirked girl hid out.

She looked at the two of them from a distance, and then yelled to them.

"Uh… Th… Thank you!"

* * *

 **It's… Been a while since I updated something, huh? I had a spell of writers block again, which seems to be coming up more and more frequently. I might just be overworked, who knows, but still, I'm glad I got this chapter out. It's nice to have something released again. I hope this chapter came out alright, I've stressed over it quite a bit.**

 **It's also going to be a bit of a turning point with how I handle characters, I think, and which ones are going to show up. There's lots of fun plans for characters like Tatami, which I think are going to be really interesting.**

 **I'm not sure what my upload schedule will be for updates, since Uni second year is up and I'm wanting to do better in uni this year, so my attention will be divided. I'll try to update regularly though, and I'm hoping to finish this story by the first half of 2019. Not sure if that'll happen, but we'll certainly see. Not that I dislike FG – But it has a definitive ending. The orphanage arc will end next chapter – and we'll be moving into new territory – Well, somewhat. Got a few favorite ideas coming up, which I think will be a lot of fun.**

 **If you want to support me, I have a Pat Reon, and a Ko - Fi account that you can use to support my works - Right about now, I could use all the support I could get with Uni starting up again, and all donations are highly appreciated - But by no means should anyone feel compelled. The name is QuirkQuartz on both if you're interested in finding out more**

 **Right then, that's… About it from me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and ill see you next time – See ya!**


	31. Wrapping Up The Hard Part

Surrounding Yuuei, there wasn't all that much. Musutafu was visible in the distance, but that was just about the only thing for quite a while. The goal had been for the Quirked to be away from the general, Quirkless public. Out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind. It never worked that way though. Never in history.

People would go out of their way to try and torment those who were disliked and pushed aside by society and governments. Every single time. Really, the only difference was that as time had gone on, they had gotten better at hiding what was essentially a forced relocation, making it nicer and feel less like they were being pushed aside, but being given a home, and compensated for the necessity of having to get the to move.

Which was always pointless. When dealing with a group as despised and minor as the Quirked, unless people agreed to the move willingly, it never got rid of the underlying issue. Sure, there were some, exceedingly rare cases where relocation was best for everyone involved, like a natural disaster, poor living conditions, or environmental disaster. But a selective process like this? It wasn't even subtle. Even those who came willingly knew that it was little more than a prison.

Just pushing the issue aside never fixed it. It just delayed the inevitable return and the need to find a solution. Right now, no one wanted to find a solution to the Quirked problem. Too concerned by fear, or bigotry, or public opinion to even offer some kind of solution outside of keeping the status quo.

And then they got angry when the Quirked stood up for themselves. It was… Endlessly frustrating, to say the least.

Still… There was at least one good thing that came out of Yuuei being so tucked away from everyone else, Izuku supposed.

The sunrise was beautiful from here.

Musutafu sat on the east of Yuuei, which meant that it was in the direct line of sight of the rising sun. Shining light shone through the cracks of the tallest buildings at first, coincided with the sky changing from blacks and dark blues, the pinks and light oranges. Slowly, the sun would rise up above those skyscrapers, and the sky would begin to burn a brilliant colour. The hills and landscape were blacked out at first, until colour gently returned to the Earth, and shadows too the black of the darkness. Clouds would be dark greys and whites, creating wonderful swirls of colour in the morning sky. Then, the sun would hover over the city, as if it had been built over it by man, to encapsulate the wonders of the society it now served. Like a celestial being watching over the species it had watched grow over the millennia.

Such a simple thing to witness. One of the natural pleasures of the world. Almost like the rising of hope itself.

No matter how dark things got, and no matter for how long, light always, always came back in the end.

That was why Izuku liked to watch a sunrise whenever he got the chance. Somehow, it always made him feel better. Or at the very least, it relaxed him, to remember that nature always brought back the light, and the same could be true of the Human race. No. The same _would_ be true.

If the effort was made.

"How you feeling?"

Izuku looked towards Mina, and then back over the sunrise again. It was time like this that he was glad that their rooms had verandas big enough for more than just one person.

Mina hadn't left his side since their talk that night. She had been there, watching over him and making sure that he was okay, and keeping him in the right frame of mind. As they returned to their patrol, Mina focused on just talking to him, keeping him open, and trying to make him optimistic. An interest Izuku learned was that she loved space and all the efforts made by Humanity to reach beyond their place in the stars. Society might have come to a halt, but that didn't mean that people weren't trying to keep going. Life had to go on. She tried to motivate and keep him optimistic by telling him all about that.

She hadn't slept, because she didn't want him to be alone at night, and had watched the sunrise with him. They hadn't needed to speak at the sun rose. They only needed to watch it together. He didn't need to thank her for that. She already knew how grateful he was.

The boy sighed, and he admitted, "Excited. Kind of nervous. Unsure. Once that building is up… It's gonna take a lot of explaining to Toshinori and the teachers. And I don't think the Quirkless will be too happy either…"

"You think it might start something?"

"I don't doubt it for a minute. The orphanage is going to… Cause a few clashes."

Clashes between them and the Quirkless were easily going to be the biggest concern. Who knew how they'd react to this unauthorized build? And who knew how they'd react when they learned it was made with Quirks? Doing so went against the law that Quirks couldn't be used under any circumstances – That was one of the main laws that the police were trying to get The First Generation for. And now he was moving over fifty children into a building that was a legal violation in more than a dozen ways. Not to mention its close proximity to Yuuei.

Yuuei. That was another place he had to consider. He hadn't even talked about this with his mentor. Granted, at this point, it'd be pretty hard to not guess that he was building a house, but the exact kind of building that it was to be… That hadn't gotten out yet. He didn't have any idea what the reaction would be. If he would be praised, or condemned. Toshinori had been looking after Eri for the last week though… Maybe he had figured it out from there. Then again, maybe he hadn't.

And then there was that Nakagame girl.

Running into Nakagame the way that he had reminded him, that there were people, not just children, who needed help, places to stay out of the streets. People who needed everything that the orphanage was offering. People with Quirks who needed places to go, but couldn't go to Yuuei, or refused to. Out of the age group, or a refusal to submit to the rules established by a prison. Or maybe some of them had been forced to do things that would lead to their arrests once they were found out. Who knew why.

But they weren't people Izuku could just, in all good consciousness, leave to fend for themselves. Not while he could still do something about it. Even if he wanted to look the other way, he couldn't.

Uncertainty was certainly a big thing in Izuku's mind right about now. But he was too deep into this project to let his insecurities take over now. He had started this. He had to finish it.

* * *

Kirishima didn't arrive at the construction site at the normal time that everyone else did. With Momoma being released, he had mentioned wanting to be there with him while he got hold of the Cement Quirk, and returned to the construction site.

The blond was already in enough trouble with the school as it was, and even in spite of personal agreement or disagreement with him being involved in the construction process, he was the only way, short of Ishiyama-sensei coming out and offering his services, that they were going to get this building made today.

So it was that Izuku's group, and Kirishima's group, excluding Kirishima himself, ended up just waiting for him and Monoma to show up.

It was quiet, and there was a certain amount of tension in the air. When the two groups got together to work, there was usually a certain level of tension anyway, but this was different. They were all concerned about Monoma's arrival, and wondered if he really could manipulate the cement that they had into a way that would construct a building. More fundamental than that, they were concerned about him even just getting here with the Quirk. There were numerous things that could go wrong, or could prevent him from copying Ishiyama's Quirk.

How exactly they planned to get hold of their teachers Quirk was still unclear. Maybe they'd end up getting lucky, and he'd be the one who came to relieve the Copy Quirk user of his room confinement. Or maybe they'd have to hunt him down.

Who knew?

Between his own group, Mina was the only person whose feelings he knew, and that was entirely dependent on the fact that she had told him. Like him, she shared a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety, but she admitted to also feeling pride. They had worked hard on this when all was said and done, and she felt that she really did have a right to feel good about it at the end of the day. That, and the fact she noticed Izuku was in serious need of a win. He wasn't going to argue with her.

Todoroki and Katsuki were, as usual harder to assess. They were fidgety, and Katsuki had taken to biting his nails in what could only be described as a vicious manner. Until now, Izuku hadn't even thought it would be possibly to viciously bite one's own nails, but here was Katsuki proving him wrong yet again. Uraraka was more reserved, and seemed to be a bit more optimistic, but like everyone here, she had her worries.

Across on the other side of the site, Izuku could see Kaminari and Mineta, both whispering to one another. Whatever their topic was, it seemed to be putting them at ease, so no one thought to say anything. The only person who was doing any real moving was Yaoyorozu, who was still separating roofing tiles from the rest of the supplies – There were a few things that would have to be done manually, without the aid of the Cement Quirk, and tiling the roof was going to be one of them.

She hadn't slept. Izuku recognized the expression and exhaustion all too well. The only difference between him and Yaoyorozu was that he was used to being exhausted. She was doing this out of a feeling of guilt and desire to atone.

The best word he had to describe the general feeling would probably be apprehension. This was something that they had all been working on for the last week. It was only natural that there was some anxiety to be shared around.

"…Hey, Todoroki." Mina said suddenly, breaking the silence. "Y'think your sister is gonna be able to get here okay?"

"I'm going to go meet with her once we've made sure the building is complete and that its safe." Todoroki stated. "I'll help her move everyone here safely."

"Between you, your sister and Takeyama, you should be okay, right?" Izuku asked. Three Quirked moving over fifty Quirked kids through a city on public service, and on a walk through the main city… That was going to be a spectacle for sure. The Quirk inheritor gulped as his brain envisioned the worst possible case scenarios possible. "I-If you need help - "

"Oh, no you don't." The pink girl turned to give him a firm look. "You're overworked as it is."

"B-But – "

"Nope. No buts. You agreed."

Mina had informed the rest of the group about what the two of them had spoken about last night on the roof. She hadn't had much choice, either morally, or literally. Finding the two of them more or less collapsed against a railing instead of patrolling because Mina had decided that he shouldn't be pushing himself in his mental states didn't leave a whole lot of room to lie.

Telling them had turned out to be a good decision with the power of hindsight. Explaining everything to them then and there might have been bad for Izuku, but because they understood, they all carried themselves accordingly. Gently and understandingly.

Or, as the case may be, as gently as they were able to be.

"I'll go with him if you're worried." Katsuki stated flatly. Even accounting for his best friends' condition, he didn't change a bit. If anything, he became more aggressive, snappy, and irritated. He was just lucky that he was surrounded by people who understood that that was one of the only ways he was able to showcase his feelings and his concern at all. "You're not fucking going anywhere. You're gonna march right the fuck inside the building once it's made, and you're gonna go right the fuck to sleep."

"That sounds like it'd be safer." Uraraka added on. "And I'll try to furnish the place. You need to get sleep, Deku. Seriously. We'll lock you in the basement if we have to."

"The… The building won't have a basement."

"Then we'll make one."

If he was honest, Izuku wasn't sure if it was totally a joke. He knew that now that his friends knew the full extent of his insomnia, they weren't going to let him sneak out without taking every precaution to make sure that the guy got the rest he needed. Somehow, he couldn't put the idea that they'd be prepared to dig out a basement to make sure he didn't sneak out aside.

Somehow the idea amused him.

"Alright, alright, you've made your points." He said, holding his hands up gently. "We'll sort out the interior and then." They might have a building, but they were still going to need to fill the insides up. Moving everything from Izuku's dorm room to a room in the building wasn't going to be a huge challenge. During the night, Mina had helped him pack up everything that he could get away with taking. If Yaoyorozu could make some bedding for them, then they should be good to go.

Interior work was going to take a while. The Creation Quirk user wasn't a machine. She needed time to recuperate her body and to gain additional fat in between sessions of creating objects. So, while a few days might be spent with mattresses and sleeping bags by the new inhabitants, it wouldn't take a week before everything was set up in accordance with how Izuku had envisioned it.

Work wasn't yet done, not completely, but enough would been done to move people in. And the sooner they arrived, the better.

"Heads up. Look who's fuckin decided to show up."

The group paused their talks, and then looked off in the direction that Katsuki was looking in – The direction of the Yuuei main building.

Two figures were jogging their way over, and it didn't take much imagination to figure out who it was. That and the bright red hair that was Kirishima's was as dead a giveaway as one could get. Besides him was someone just about the same height as him. It took a few seconds longer for everyone's eyes to adjust to the distance since the person by him had no distinct features, but it the connection was made long before the sight was made. It was Monoma. And there could only really be one reason they were moving like they had purpose as opposed to just walking.

Copy had a time limit of five minutes. So that had to mean that he had acquired the Cement Quirk.

All attention from both Izuku's group and Kirishima's group was now on the two arrivals as they quickly made their way towards the construction site. It didn't take them very long to arrive, slowing their jog to a walk before coming to a halt.

"We got it." Kirishima informed everyone. He didn't seem all that worn out, probably in no small part due to his physical fitness. Monoma on the other hand seemed to need a second, and bent over, keeping himself upright by having his hands on his knees.

"How long has he got?" Izuku asked, keeping his eye on the blond as he caught his breath.

"About three minutes." Kirishima said. "He just pretended to run into Ishiyama-sensei by accident, and then we ran straight here."

Monoma looked up at Izuku as the Quirk Inheritor looked down at him. Izuku wasn't completely sure of what to say to him, or if he wanted anything to be said at all. Using the Copy Quirk user was the only way this construction project was going to get done on time, and Izuku knew that. And he'd thought that he'd be able to handle seeing Monoma in close proximity. Looking at him now though, he began to wonder if that was a mistake.

He felt ill looking at him. The same kind of illness he got while he looked at Kirishima, only this was fresh. And more personal. Kirishima might have given the order for the fight, but Monoma had been the one who pulled the trigger in the end. He was the one Izuku had traded the most blows with. The anger was still there. But Izuku acknowledged his necessity. He'd acknowledged it long ago. He had put his pride aside for the benefit of people who needed it.

Yaoyorozu had mentioned to Izuku during the night they ran into one another that Monoma was a proud person, and that an apology from him was unlikely. It wasn't going to be something that he was going to be able to do easily, since that pride was one of the only things that had kept him going throughout most of his life.

The fact he lived in a world that did nothing bur try to tear him down, yet he managed to have pride in himself, was honestly something amazing.

If that pride got him through the day, but that meant he wouldn't apologize, that was fine by Izuku. He couldn't care much one way or the other if Monoma was going to apologize. All he wanted was the orphanage. His actions would speak louder than his words.

And here he was now. And Izuku didn't know what to think about it.

Neither, it seemed, did Monoma.

"Well, unless you feel like wasting away the next three minutes filling your lungs back up, let's get a move on." Katsuki said, standing next to Izuku to look down at the Copy Quirk user. Izuku could tell he enjoyed the opportunity to do so.

"…Right." Monoma nodded, standing upright again. "Where's the cement?"

"Looks like electro-prick is stood by it." The Explosion Quirk user said, nodding towards Kaminari. He wasn't exactly next to it, but he was in the same general area, which was enough.

"…Got it."

The Copy Quirk user made his way over to the point, in as close a thing to as solemn silence as he could manage. Somehow, that made Izuku just as unsure. Kirishima said that Monoma was sorry for what he'd done, and he was here, but the fact he said as little as possible didn't help ease Izuku. Even if It was to do with pride… It was a feeling that wasn't quite describable.

There was certainly a great deal of pressure on Monoma, to be sure. He was arguably the most crucial part of this operation, and everything depended on him having excellent control over a Quirk he'd never used before, while creating something of immense magnitude, that had to last. He was to do what couple take a trained construction crew months, in just a few moments.

Could he actually manage it?

Everyone took a couple of steps back to give Monoma the room that he needed to work with, and felt their breathing halt.

A second passed.

Then Monoma moved.

Both his hands lowered down towards the ground to physically touch the pile of cement that he had been given to work with. Once his hands made contact, the substance began to move. It encapsulated and wrapped itself around the construction supplies – The window frames, the bricks, and everything else he needed, dragging it towards the dig-out, before the frame of the building took shape.

Like a wave, cement seemed to cover just about everything, before it was washed away, and revealed everything that had gone on underneath it. Bricks were laid out as they were needed to support the weight, and walls and layouts beginning to take shape and become evident. Plastic door and window frames became to appear in the places they should have done, carried there by the combination of limestone and clay.

Then, it began to tower over everyone, taking the shape of the dorms they had spent the entire term within. The dig-out was in a U shape, with sharp corners, and that was the shape that was surrounding them now. Getting taller and taller, until it was about equal height with the 1B Dorm building. Patterns repeated, with windows showing up in nearly the same places as they did on the first floor. The size was immense, and for the first time, the students realized just how much work must have gone into making the buildings without the benefit of a Quirk like this. There wasn't any doubt that the amount of effort that was required to generate the building was immense on Monoma, but he persisted.

The front seemed to be at an end. Through the windows, the observers could see the cement moving around, taking shape in ways that weren't visible. This carried on for only about half a minute. The interiors were evidentally easier to sort out once the actual size of the building was established.

…

It was going to need a coat of paint if they didn't want it to look just plain light grey. And there was still maintenance work to be done.

But within just a few minutes, the group found themselves looking at the fruits of what they had been preparing for the entire week.

The orphanage was built…

* * *

…It wasn't much to look at though. At least, not now.

Izuku would be the first to admit. There was very little charm to the place at all. There wasn't any furniture, and the interior and exterior were both complete shades of light grey. There wasn't any electricity either. Not even a carpet was laid out in the main room. It was completely barren, with very few features that would make the place a home.

Of course, that should have been expected. The building had been made out of whatever supplies Yaoyorozu had been able to create, and cement. What they had was more like the outline of a building, that was ready to be renovated. Still, given the size of it, and how long it would have taken them without a Quirk, they had saved months of time.

Fixing it up would take time as well. They had about five floors that they needed to renovate and furnish. But that would be easy, compared to everything else they had gone through to get to this point. The materials they needed were cheap, or just a request away if they considered Yaoyorozu. Double the speed as well, if Monoma would Copy Creation.

Really, the hardest part of it all was over. Now, it would be a bit like putting a jigsaw together as they made it a place worth living in.

The choice had been made that they needed to fix the place up a bit before inviting the kids in the orphanage to live there – Or at least, they needed to fix up the ground floor while they renovated the rest. The first floor wouldn't take too long at all – Maybe a day if they worked at it solidly. Which meant come Monday, they could start bringing everyone here. Even the day would be better – More people were at work or classes during Mondays. Izuku could go alone if Todoroki and Katsuki couldn't cut classes – Which they intended to do, and Izuku knew perfectly well that he wasn't going to be able to stop them from doing that at all.

All they needed was to lay down some wooden floors, get some carpets and furniture's, and then some mattresses for the kids to sleep on. It would be a bit rough for a few days, but they would be much safer here than in the neighborhood they were in currently.

Izuku's things ended up being brought up to one of the rooms on the top floor. In the blueprints, the top floor would be Izuku, and any additional people to the orphanage they needed to add. Until they needed the space, it would act as storage, if they needed it. Fuyumi and Takeyama would occupy the fourth floor, so they could be closer to the kids they were watching. The fourth through second floors were designated rooms, while the first floor was the reception. Part of the reason for this proposed layout was to hide The First Generation equipment and planning rooms that were now going to take place there.

They had their own base of operations now. There wasn't any need to risk hiding things like Hero costumes, or have Hero meetings in the Yuuei dorms where the risk of being found out was large.

But even then, they had spare rooms on the fourth and third floors. Plenty of space for additional invites if they needed them. Fully furnishing everything out would take weeks, but everyone was feeling optimistic.

Except Izuku.

He wasn't disappointed – Far from it. He was just as much in awe about what had surrounded him when he first saw the building standing. He was stunned by just how seamlessly the construction process had been. He ever felt a small tinge of pride hit him as he looked up and saw the fruits of their labors. The manifestation of the promise he had made to Eri, to Fuyumi, and to himself. The thing that he thought was going to make him feel redeemed. He'd achieved what he'd been obsessed with for ages now…

But he didn't get the ultimate satisfaction that he had been expectation to get.

He felt… Underwhelmed.

But at least he knew why.

* * *

From the room that he had claimed, Izuku could see over the Yuuei walls. Just a small bit, and the angle he was at meant that all he could see was the area around the main entrance of the school building, and maybe a few meters in front of it. He had a view of the other dorm buildings, and could see about half the courtyard. The other half was blocked by the angle of the wall.

The clouds were grey, and Izuku suspected that rain would arrive while he slept. He blinked, and then tapped on the glass window in front of him, half expecting the transparent object to come loose, and fall to the ground below. It stayed up instead, not even budging a centimeter. How Monoma had managed to move the glass in a wave of cement so flawlessly was a testament to his skill with his Quirk. No wonder he was a fundamentally proud person.

A crowd stood at the gate of the Yuuei walls, about three times as big as the normal one that had watched them throughout the week. It looked like nearly the entire school was there, staring in awe at the new building that had just appeared this morning. It was hard to blame them. Izuku wondered if any of them had truly figured out the intention of the building.

He had expected to have to deal with some of the teaching staff once the building was up. That the adults would storm in and demand to know the reason that he'd made such a place right on their doorstep. He'd expected to be yelled at and end up with some kind of lecture. He'd been mentally preparing for it all week.

When he saw Aizawa approaching the building, he thought that that was going to be it.

But then his ex-homeroom teacher just walked away from the building a few moments later. It had left Izuku somewhat perplexed. Maybe Katsuki or someone else had spoken to him, convinced him not to do this today. Or maybe he was just there to lecture Monoma about using his Quirk outside of Yuuei. Would he get in trouble for that, or would Toshinori let him off the hook?

He saw Aizawa talk to some of the security guards. He couldn't help but wonder if Mina's brother was amongst them.

"Hey. Sorry I took a while."

Izuku turned from the window, and towards the door-frame of his room. There stood his pink-skinned friend, carrying enough blankets to block out the sun. He couldn't even see her face there were so many blankets, all a variety of pink shades, from Magenta to Rosewood, all with all sorts of patterns and swirls on them.

"Stairs gave me trouble." Mina added, making her way towards the mattress that had been moved p here for him, and dropping all of blankets on top of it.

"You know, I wonder." Izuku said, putting on a small smile. "Every time I think of you, you seem to turn up. Are you sure you don't have another Quirk I don't know about?"

"Woulda loved it if that were the case." Mina chuckled softly, her exhaustion prevailing over her ability to laugh. "Would've helped me with the stairs about five minutes ago."

"You could have just asked me to help, you know."

"You're exhausted as is. Any more and I don't know if you'll wake up."

In lieu of a heating system, blankets were the only way that Izuku was going to keep warm during his rest. Especially this high up. He could have easily slept in one of the spare rooms on the ground floor, but he had wanted to rest in a room that was his own. Somehow, it felt more fitting, since this was going to be his new home. There was certainly no doubting that he was tired.

Yet he didn't want to sleep.

"You alright, Izu?" Mina yawned. It was only then that Izuku remembered that she had been awake for the last thirty or so hours, just so he didn't spend his night alone. "You look worse than you did this morning."

"It's…"

For a moment, he was tempted to say that it wasn't anything. To spare her the trouble of having to listen to him talk. To spare her having to worry about him. To spare her… Well, him, he supposed. Under normal circumstances, that would have been what he would have done.

With Mina though, he couldn't bring himself to lie to her. Not after everything that she had said the night before.

No, couldn't wasn't the right word for it. He could pretend to be okay…

…But he didn't want to.

"…I thought I'd feel some real satisfaction when I saw this place, that's all." He admitted, making his way over and sitting on the mattress with a sigh. "Something to make me feel good, you know?"

"You… Didn't get that?"

"I'm not… Disappointed." He qualified. "Monoma did a good job… He's saved us months of work by doing this for us. And I feel…" He paused, and then sighed. "I don't know how I feel. I should be proud, shouldn't I?... But… I'm not sure what I'm feeling. All I can think of is that we still have so much work to do…"

Could he really afford to rest when there was so much to be done? He knew that he'd agreed to make sure that he got some rest, but somehow it felt…

…Wrong, almost.

"Y'know what your problem is?"

"What?"

The very second that Izuku voiced his question, he found himself having all manner of bright and dark pink patterned blankets falling and landing on top of him, before being pushed onto the mattress by what felt like the force of a boulder shoving him. He rapidly found himself trapped underneath a pile of warmth.

Warmth that came from Mina hugging him as much as the blankets.

As she had pushed him, she had also fallen down with him, and was currently laying next to him, hugging him with everything that she had. She was tired too, and wanted her rest.

And was going to take advantage of the situation.

"…Your problem is y'need more sleep. Y'can't feel good if you're not rested…" Mina informed him tiredly, before her eyelids shut, and she collapsed her head into the pillow. She was out like a light, practically u conscious the moment her head hit the pillow.

Izuku found himself now covered in blankets, and with an already fast asleep Mina with her arms around him and cuddled up to him. He'd completely know that she intended to get her rest alongside him. She'd even gone as far as to find an article online that 'proved' people slept better when they were by one another. Izuku had been too tired to argue.

…And he wouldn't mind admitting, knowing that Mina was there, was… Comforting.

What she said about not being able to feel good without rest, he was half sure that she was talking more about herself than she was about him especially. Even the most energetic person needed to replenish their energy.

She was a glass half full kind of person. And that was what Izuku was too. At least, that's what he was, before everything that happened shook him.

There was… Lots about Mina that he wished that he was. He looked towards her face, and heard her voice in his head.

Telling him that he was doing his best. And to get some rest.

' _You're worrying me.' 'You need to rest.' 'You're not alone.'_

' _You're not alone.'…_

...The reason he didn't feel that satisfaction from seeing the orphanage built wasn't because of the depression. It wasn't because it looked a lot more plain than it had in his imagination. And t wasn't because he ad relied on other people to help him make it.

He felt unsatisfied because it was so empty. And there wasn't anyone here to enjoy it. What was the point of making it if it couldn't be used to help people. Perhaps he'd feel better once some people had moved in. Once the vision he had was the reality of the matter.

Or maybe he was just too tired to feel satisfied. Maybe Mina had a point. Maybe it all felt like a dream.

Maybe he didn't know exactly why he felt this way after all.

He glanced out of the window again. He wondered what time it would be when they woke up from the morning sleep. He then turned to Mina again.

Slowly, he felt his eyes began to close.

And for the first time in a week, a real smile spread across his lips.

* * *

 **Well, the construction project arc is just about wrapped up. I'll be tying up a few loose ends over the next couple chapters, and we'll be moving along in the story as what work that's left to be done falls to the side story. Izuku's emotional arc is something that is tricky to do, but I think I've got him on a path towards recovery, and over the next few chapters, as well as a few changes to the world thanks to this project.**

 **I do hope that ya'll enjoyed this chapter – I'm hesitant to leave any more hints in these after chapter messages, so I'm going to cap off here for now. I'll see all of you in the next chapter – See ya!**


	32. Mess Of Her Own Making

_Movement felt sluggish, and unresponsive. Like weights were attached to every single limb._

 _Jumping felt difficult. Like gravity had increased tenfold._

 _And it was hard to see. Like his eyes had been blinded and he had to readjusted to being able to look around his surroundings._

 _Everything made Izuku feel slower, weaker, and heavier all at once. He felt more vulnerable, and even with One For All surging throughout his veins, he felt weaker than he did when he was Quirkless. Like the world around him was bigger than he was, and towered around him, as if he were a bug trying to make a stand against giants._

 _He was in his Hero costume. His mask was undone, so anyone around him would be able to see his identity. For some reason, the hoodie that his costume was equipped with wasn't attached either, so he couldn't even try to hide even if he wanted to._

 _That wasn't even the first thing on his mind though. He felt a pressure applying itself against his chest and his back, like it was slowly trying to crush him. He didn't even realize where he was until he looked around._

 _Around him, amidst the black fog that enveloped everything, were ruins, and the shadows of people darting away as quick as they could. The city. He didn't recognize the street, or any of the stores or buildings that surrounded him though. They were all foreign to him. He couldn't even read the writing that some of the buildings had on the sides._

 _It was like the writing was implied, rather than explicitly stated. A haze in the midst of everything else that surrounded him. Indentations of buildings, and shadows in the shapes of people._

 _Everything seeming to move away from him. The shadows that made up the people were running, and the buildings, and the rubble surrounding them, seemed to drift apart. The haze however, seemed to come closer, and grow thicker. Izuku didn't move. Whatever it was that was causing the other things to run and leave, he wasn't seeing it. Or feeling it._

 _The haze seemed to concentrate on a specific point right in front of him, by his feet. More and more layers of black fog adding onto that point, building it up. It started out as just a ball, and then it began to take form._

 _A Humanoid form, with inhuman features. A protrude mouth, like an avian beak. A set of sharp, jutted, and ragged, shattered teeth, akin to rocks. No Human jaw. No visible skull. The vital organ of the brain was exposed for all to see, and there were no eye sockets either._

 _Purple charcoal. Muscles thicker than Izuku's whole arm. Bright red scars began to form, almost glowing. Skull knee caps. The only clothes being work, a set of huge, bulky beige pants that were cut off at the knees._

 _The Nomu._

 _Izuku's body moved before he even began to think. One For All surged throughout his system, and he leaped towards the humongous monster. In the air, he reached behind him, and drew his Bowie knife._

 _And aimed right for the brain._

 _As he fell though, something changed. Darkness changed, and the shape of the Nomu became something else._

 _Something Human._

 _Ryu Sutoret._

 _The person the Nomu used to be._

 _Memories of what happened during their first encounter flooded back. How he attacked Mina. How he tried to attack him. How he and his group targeted Bakugou. The hypocrite that he was. He deserved to be in jail._

 _He didn't deserve to be turned into the Nomu. And he didn't deserve to die._

 _But Izuku's body was moving against his wishes._

 _The darkness moved again, like it was a defense mechanism. Just before Izuku was a few inches away, it changed once more._

 _Still Ryu Sutoret._

 _But now he was a child._

 _The knife entered his brain anyway._

Izuku woke up.

* * *

Light, for a moment, made Izuku think that he hadn't gotten much more than an hours sleep. It had been light out when he has passed out, and it was light out when he woke up. Yet he didn't feel tired in the slightest. He felt rested. or as rested as he was going to be, given how long he'd been awake.

It wasn't until he checked his phone for the time that he realized that he'd been asleep for about twenty-six hours. That surprised him. To the best of his knowledge, the world-record for staying awake without sleep had been eleven days, and when they went to sleep, they had been awake again after fourteen hours. The best guess that he had was that his body had needed to recover from all the physical labor, and injuries, that had been accumulating over the week of his near sleeplessness.

Not helping was the fact that, after sleeping for so long, he was understandably a bit took him a moment to remember that Mina had gone to sleep with him, and she wasn't there anymore. She must have woken up before him, and left. He couldn't help but wonder how long ago that was.

Once he actually got up, and looked out of the window directly, he could see Yuuei. He could see the students through the windows in class, and those in the courtyard, walking to and from place to place. Those that could see the new orphanage didn't seem to be able to look away from it. Some of the classrooms had opted to put blinds on each window, in an effort to stop the students from being distracted by the new building.

Certainly, it wasn't difficult to understand why they were so in awe of the new building. It just showed up overnight to them. Naturally, they would want to know exactly what was and what was going to happen with it.

...Izuku wondered what the school's perspective on what he had done was. Or if the Quirkless had figured out about this place yet. He wondered if any of them even had a clue as to what the purpose of the building was.

He continued to look out the window for a few moments longer, and then he let out a sigh. An entire day gone. Just like that.

Mina and Kacchan and the others were right when they said that he needed his sleep, and he would be lying if he said that he didn't feel better. He did. But there was still that fact that an entire day had gone by, and he'd done nothing but lay unconscious with his eyes closed. Something about that, being that unproductive... It didn't quite feel right. Not to him. It was time he could have been doing something.

...Though maybe his friends had a point. Maybe he'd be able to do more, better, now that he was rested and had a clear head. And he wouldn't be worrying people as much now.

It was about Midday. He decided that he needed to find his friends. To let them know that he was awake, and to catch up on any news that he may have missed.

Behind the door was the same fifth floor that he remembered – Grey and very little else to it. Still dull, and without and substance to it. The fourth and third floors weren't much different either.

The second floor though… There was something.

There was noise.

Not particularly distinguishable noise, but there was noise. It was muffled, and Izuku began to hear it about halfway down the stairs to the first floor. It sounded like conversation, but he couldn't make out the words, or who it was that was talking.

At least he knew that there were people here. Now it was just a question of who.

He expected the first floor to be just as barren.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Before he even stepped foot on the first floor, he had to turn around on an ascending staircase. When he turned around to go down the final flight, he could see the floor at the end of the steps.

Wooden flooring. Evidently, they had started filling refitting the place while he was asleep. He didn't think much more of it until he reached the bottom of the steps, and took a look at what was waiting for him.

The first thing that greeted his eyes was the sight of two children.

Neither one of them had noticed him making his way down the steps. They were busy playing a game, and were laughing like they had only just felt the emotion for the first time in their lives. One of them was chasing the other, while the other was seeming to try to find ways to duck and dodge them. They seemed to be careful though, not wanting to even scratch anything of their new surroundings.

Both were Quirked. They had the physical mutations to prove that. One had a series of sharp horns that extruded from their forehead, and went all around their skull in a line along with their forehead. The other had a set of ears that were about the size of an adult hand. They were fairly visible mutations, that were hard for anyone to miss. No doubt they had been on the receiving end of some of the worst remarks and prejudice, regardless of their ages – They couldn't be older than eight or nine.

It was hard for Izuku not to stare. He just stopped dead in his tracks, and just watched them, finding himself unable to look away. He'd never seen either one of them before, but there was really only one place that they could have come from.

Obviously, it didn't take long for either of the kids to realize that Izuku was there, and they promptly stopped laughing, and turned to look at the, from their perspective, complete stranger who had just come from up the stairs, whom they had absolutely no idea existed, and then began to silently watch them play their game like he'd just seen a something supernatural play out in front of his very eyes.

Of course he was going to look like a slight maniac, and freak the two kids out.

No more than seven seconds of blank staring between them lasted before the children got intimidated by the mop-headed teenager, and scurried away to play somewhere else, away from him. The quietest "Wait" escaped Izuku's lips. He was too surprised to do anything else.

And it was only then that he actually took note of the full extent of his surroundings.

There were still a bunch of grey walls, but parts of them seemed to have been painted over, now white in their colour, and the entire floor, like the section he had seen while coming down the stairs, was now covered in the same wooden-plank coverings. Laminated, so one could walk across it in their bare feet without the risk of splinters.

A couple of buckets were at the end of edge of the point where grey was being transformed to white, which Izuku found himself attracted to. Inside both, white paint. On the floor beneath them, some covers had been put down, to prevent staining on the new wooden floor. Said covers were damp, indicating water had been spilled here. Stains of white, now dry paint were also scattered along the cotton fabric. About a third of the corridor was already painted, and the buckets had been moved to assist in coating up the next area.

There was even some artificial lighting – A small lightbulb hanging just above his head. It didn't emit a ton of light, but it was enough to illuminate the corridor, if only gently. There wasn't any visible wiring though. It was just… A lightbulb, hanging and producing light without any visible energy source.

…What the hell had happened while he was asleep?

"Oh, Deku! You're up!"

Uraraka approached Izuku from one of the corridors to the side. When Izuku turned to look at her, he was able to see that she was carrying a paint-roller in one hand, and a bucket of water in the other. She didn't struggle with the bucket in the least, Izuku assumed because she was using her Quirk to make it weigh nothing at all.

She also wore an apron, which had a few splatters of white paint along it. Her face was also lightly scattered with paint.

"You've been out for an entire day! I was starting to wonder if you were gonna wake up today at all! You feeling any better?"

"Y… Yeah, yeah… Uraraka… What's been going on here?" Izuku asked, looking around his surroundings once again. "I – I just saw two kids here – "

"Yeah, Katsuki and Todoroki went and got them while you were sleeping. From that place Todoroki's sister ran."

"I thought we said we'd wait until this place was more… Homely."

"We're working on it." The brunette grinned, holding up the bucket of water as if to punctuate the point. "But, well, Todoroki's sister said that it didn't matter too much. They'd help us build this place up. Apparently they had a couple of nasty incidents, so they called Todoroki and we decided to speed things up."

"H... How sped up?"

"Once I'm done with that bit," She pointed with her paint-roller, "We'll have finished the entire floor. Well, aside from furniture."

"H... How... Did you..." Izuku just made a weird gesture with his hands, towards what of the corridor was actually done. This was not something he had expected to wake up to.

A bit of the first floor, maybe. Not nearly the entire thing in _one day._

"Well, there are… About ten of us working on stuff now. Plus, some of the kids have Quirks that are kinda helpful. So that sped things up a lot." Uraraka explained. "Me and Ashido've been working on painting the walls, Katsuki's been laying the flooring out. Todoroki's... Been watching the kids and keeping them busy." She spoke with a giggle to her voice, remembering the sight of her friend trying to keep fifty kid sunder control. "His sisters been helping him out as well."

It was a pretty brief and undetailed description, but Izuku got the gist of what had happened. They had been busy while he'd been sleeping. Very busy.

"Ashido and Katsuki are in the main living hall." Uraraka informed him, before shifting her shoulders. "I'm guessing you'll wanna see them, right? I'm gonna try and finish up this corridor before it gets dark out."

"Speaking of dark out…" Izuku muttered, glancing up at the wireless lightbulb.

Uraraka just grinned. "You'll see." And with that, she made her way down towards the patch of wall she had set up for, and got back to work.

She almost seemed like she was enjoying it, and had a certain… Ethic towards it. Like she knew what she was doing. It took Izuku a few seconds to remember that her parents had owned a construction company. She mentioned that she had helped out a bit before heading to Yuuei. She was probably the closest out of all of them to what qualified as a builder.

He blinked, and then went down the same way that Uraraka had come from, careful not to touch any of the walls for fear of wet paint.

Noise was arguably the biggest change since he had been out. Two days ago, this place had been almost dead silent, with nothing else aside from the people who had helped make it being alive within it's walls. Now, there was noise. Lots of it. Subconsciously, Izuku had blocked it out, as shock at what he was seeing, and his conversation with Uraraka had been the center focuses of his brain. Now he had opened it up, he could hear everything around it.

He could hear laughter. He could hear yelling. He could hear playing.

He could hear joy, long before he saw it with his own eyes.

When the corridor opened up into the main room, Izuku saw people. He saw lots of kids, all in groups, some playing, others merely huddling together. Some were speaking to the older people around them – Fuyumi, Takeyama, and Katsuki and Mina in this case. None of them saw him for a moment.

Fuyumi and Takeyama looked a mixture of exhausted and elated. The size of the building they were now going to be able to call home no doubt had the pair of them very excited and grateful, as well as being able to get away from the poor neighborhood they had lived in just a few hours ago. Of the two of them, Fuyumi looked the more exhausted one, while Takeyama still seemed to have an energy about her.

About a second later, Izuku realized two of the kids that Fuyumi was trying to comfort were the ones who he had inadvertently scared off.

Another second later, the pair of them seemed to spot him again. And with them, the four elders saw him too.

"Midori!" Mina practically cheered as she bounced onto her feet. "You're up!"

"Y-Yeah, I…" Izuku nodded, awkwardly, offering Mina a slight smile, before turning his attention fully towards the two kids he had spooked. "I-I'm sorry if I scared you both earlier…"

Neither of them said anything. One of them – The one with spikes coming from his skull – seemed to nod, ever-so-ever slightly. What that meant exactly, Izuku didn't have a clue.

"I'm sure they were just startled." Fuyumi said in an effort to reassure Izuku. "Please now, don – don't worry about it…"

It wasn't until now Izuku took a full assessment of the room – There were a few seats. Nothing too fancy, or especially comfortable, but they did the job of seating someone well enough. In the center of the room – Behind the seats, where Izuku was standing, but facing towards them from the chair's perspective – Was an army of mattresses and sleeping bags. This was what the orphans and their caretakers had to have been using as a place to sleep since they got here, since not all the rooms were sorted out yet. There was a certain… Scent in the air as well, that came from so many people being made to sleep in the same room as one another, not that it was their fault.

Certainly not an ideal situation, but given the status of the building, it was about the best that they could hope for, for the time being. It didn't look all that comfortable, but it would only be like that for a few days.

If nothing else, it explained why Fuyumi looked like she was exhausted. The teenager imagined that she got woken up a lot by kids needing assurances, and even when she got some shuteye, she didn't have the most comfortable bedding in the world.

"Are you feeling better?" The older woman asked, breaking Izuku from his observations of the room. "Uh, Shoto told me about the…" She paused, to find the right words. "… About all the hard work you put into making sure this place would be ready as soon as it was…"

"…It's still not anywhere near 'Ready'…" Izuku stated with a sigh. Ideally, he would have wanted the building to be fully furnished before they brought any of the kids here. It couldn't have been helped – He knew that. But he still felt like, in some way, he had let them down. "I'm sorry… I promise we'll try to get it sorted as quickly as we – "

"No, no! I… I wanted to thank you."

The freckled teen blinked. That… Wasn't the response that he had expected.

"Th-Thank me?..."

Fuyumi nodded, a small smile at either edge of her lips. "You helped make… All of this. Its… It's incredible."

"It still needs work." Takeyama added on, looking around the room as she spoke. "But it's gonna be really nice when it's finished. Better than that dump we just came from."

Izuku had promised them a completed place. He'd promised them that within such a short amount of time, and he'd done that before he'd even known Kirishima and his group were going to help in any capacity. Without them, there was no way that this place could even be in the state that it was in.

And here they were, thanking him. For somehow being able to deliver half a promise.

* * *

Takeyama had been right when she said that it was going to take a lot of work to build up the orphanage.

Really, Izuku wasn't sure if he fully realized the magnitude of what he had promised when he had promised it. Sometimes it took months for buildings to be built that were only intended for a family of four. In many cases, granted, the workers didn't have the benefits of Quirks, but having Quirks alone wouldn't be enough to speed things us as drastically, would they?

Well, in reality, they had been – Without them, this place would still be an outline in the ground. It was only really thanks to these unique powers that the place was up at all. But again, as he noted, Izuku hadn't known Monoma would offer to Copy Cement, and build this place up.

Even then, the furnishing was going to take a long time. It was hard to even know where to begin.

Still, it hadn't stopped the woken members of his group from getting to work on it.

Mina could only really tell him the story as she knew it herself. Once she had woken up, and managed to get downstairs without waking him up, she found that Todoroki and Katsuki had already gone, left to go and escort the orphanage kids back here. Remaining on site, Uraraka had begun to start working out some kind of plan for what came next, and what needed to be done, and who could do what the best. Kirishima and his group had stuck around to offer support, and the brunette had made the most of what assistance they could offer.

When Todoroki and Katsuki returned, they started to help out too. As did Fuyumi and Takeyama. Even some of the kids who had Quirks that could help speed things up offered to help. Everyone got sleep as well, which surprised Izuku - With how much they had gotten done, he honestly thought that they had to have worked throughout the night.

Izuku did get an answer to the wireless light bulb though - Mei Hatsume.

That had been an idea from Yaoyorozu. Knowing the hyperactivity intelligent engineering student, the Creation Quirk user had approached her with questions on how to install light sources into the currently completely electrically absent house. Until then, they'd had to resort to using torches and candles in the places that had less exposure to the light.

Hatsume already had something before Yaoyorozu even arrived.

Izuku wouldn't pretend that he completely understood the science behind it. The best he could figure out was that it was some kind of a box that emitted an electronic signal in the same way that an internet modem sent out a Wi-Fi signal. It was experimental technology that had been researched before the advent of Quirks, and Hatsume had apparently wanted to try to perfect it.

With quite a bit of success, apparently. She had tested it out before - Now the real challenge was going to be getting the device to fuel an entire buildings electronic needs.

"So... What did everyone do about classes?" Izuku asked. He was expelled, and Mina had made the conscious choice to skip over classes that day to catch up on sleep. That didn't account for what everyone else had done.

"Apparently Aizawa came with some textbooks yesterday." Mina explained. "He told Bakugou and Todoroki what pages needed reviewing. I guess this is his way of letting us skip classes without missing anything."

Izuku couldn't help but gently laugh. That sounded like something their teacher would do. "How... Logical."

"We didn't hear anything from the Head, though. He hasn't said anything... He's probably waiting for you, y'know."

"...Do we know if the Quirkless know about this place yet?"

"I'd be surprised if they didn't. It has been two days now."

Two days, and the first floor was nearing completion. If they worked at the same speed, that meant that the building could be fully furnished in about ten days. It sounded like a long time, but it was actually a good estimate to work with. Especially for a building of this size. And if he helped, maybe they could cut down that amount of time.

The sooner that the building was completely done, the better.

There was also Heroism that they had to consider. The chances of them being spotted coming to and from this place weren't any greater - The risk was, honestly, about the same as it had been when they had been sneaking out of the school grounds containing hundreds of Quirked. The sooner that they had proper doors installed on each of the rooms though, the better Izuku was going to feel.

Other concerns did exist, but they were minor, and would sort themselves out over the next few days, along with everything else as the place got more and more refined.

Right now, Izuku felt a... Calmness, he'd have so say.

He was eager, there wasn't going to be any denial about that. He saw everything around him that needed working on, but he didn't feel any of the stress. Like a small planet had been lifted off of his chest and given him the chance to breathe.

Seeing the building being used and appreciated. Being thanked for the effort that had gone in. Knowing that his friends could carry on without him...

...Or maybe just getting a good night's sleep. What the reason was exactly, he wasn't sure. But all he knew was that he did feel... Better.

Better than he had felt in what seemed like an eternity.

"I... Guess you and the others will have to start going to classes again in a day or two." He said. "You shouldn't fall behind in studies if you can help it... And... I guess I need to see the Head tomorrow. Maybe today, if I get the chance."

"You think he'll be okay with this?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure... Before Yuuei, we had a little motto. 'One Person At A Time'... I'm... Not entirely sure what he'll make of having fifty new neighbors."

Before either of them could express any further thoughts, the sound of hammering came from outside. A sharp noise that came from above them.

Yaoyorozu. Again.

That hammering had been present throughout most of Izuku's briefing, with only a few occasional leases when the woman had to create more shingles or nails to hammer into the roof. And that had apparently been an entire thing in of itself.

"…" Izuku paused, and looked up towards the ceiling, like he was somehow going to be able to see Yaoyorozu through five different layers of concrete. "…Has she even taken a break from that today?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure if she even stopped through the night."

"You couldn't hear her?"

"I wore earmuffs… Which she made for me. Pretty much everyone did. I'm amazed she didn't wake you."

Izuku looked at Mina, and then back up at the ceiling, just in time to hear another hammering echo. No one else seemed to know about how valuable her contributions had been towards the completion of this very building. She truly had kept it all to herself, like she said she had intended to.

To say that she was regarded with contempt was… Well, it wasn't the most inaccurate term in the world. The girl was looked at with glares and bad looks from everyone on Izuku's team, aside from Izuku himself, even in spite of all the work she was doing. But she just wasn't stopping working either. She was still going at it, and trying to keep her head held… As high as it could be held, given the circumstances.

There was a certain…. Empathy Izuku had for that. A certain sympathy…

And now she was working through the night on top of that.

"…Maybe I should speak to her." Izuku said aloud, standing up.

"Talk to her? About what?"

"Not pushing herself too much."

"…That's kinda funny coming from a guy who hadn't slept for over a week, dude." Mina said, letting herself laugh gently at her own observation. "And, like… The roofing does need doing, or the entire thing could collapse on us if we get bad weather. Shouldn't we let her keep on working?"

Nothing she had said was wrong in any way, Izuku knew. But that didn't change things.

A brief pause. And then he made his way through the corridors and out the front door, leaving Mina on her own, and blinking in curiosity.

* * *

Transporting over fifty children from the other side of the city wasn't ever going to be an easy task, and Izuku had known that perfectly well. He'd expected to have to be guarding all of them from some kind of Quirkless mob that would end up following them, trying to find out the new location where they were going to be hiding out at.

….A public bus was not what he had had in mind.

And yet there one was.

…Without a driver.

…Still there.

...He decided that he just wasn't even going to question what the hell that thing was doing there. He…. Really didn't want to know what Katsuki and Todoroki had gone through to get these kids here. He just…

Just, no.

His attention turned back towards Yaoyorozu. When he looked up at the roof, he could see her, hammering in nails into support beams underneath the roofing, before tiling it with shingles and making them secure as well. She had about half the roof done in the two days since the building had been made, and the pace at which she was working had picked up. The news had predicted a brief storm in the next few days. She probably wanted the building as waterproof as it could be before that wound up happening.

Even from a distance, Izuku could tell that she was exhausted. Completely and utterly. Her movements seemed heavy, and her face had a red hinge all over her cheeks and around her nose. She was also clearly breathing hard.

And Izuku was getting the feeling she wasn't all that fond of being up on a place this high for so long.

She wasn't a person who had been subjected to manual labour before. Her privileged background wasn't exactly a secret to anyone. The fact she even knew what she was doing was no doubt a result of many hours in front of textbooks and computer screens, researching every possible source she could find. All for this building.

…Izuku recognized the look in her eyes.

"Hey." He said, simply and clearly.

Yaoyorozu paused before she hammered in another nail, and looked down to see the black-haired teenager below. "Oh… You're awake?"

Izuku nodded. There was a ladder right in front of him, which was probably how Yaoyorozu had gotten up there in the first place – He didn't know if she had made it. At this point, it was starting to feel like just about everything in this place was made by Yaoyorozu. He could have just used that.

But there was a part of him that questioned the point in having inherited a Quirk if he wasn't going to use it. So instead, he activated his power, and jumped up onto the roof – It was a lot faster than climbing up as well.

He landed a bit to the right of Yaoyorozu, where there was a bit of a clearing. There were no difficulties in his landing. When he arrived, he stood upright, and looked at all the work that had been done.

Also, the lanterns, which had provided her the light she had needed to work through the night. It certainly confirmed what Mina had told him.

"…Impressive." He said, simply. He wasn't just being kind either – What had happened here really was impressive. Without her, this entire operation wouldn't exist, and now she was working on one of the most vital parts of the refurbishment project, while still providing crucial aid to the ones working on the interior.

"Th…. Thank you." The Creation Quirk user said, and then hammered another nail into the support beam before her.

"…You haven't slept."

It wasn't a question, but an observation. There was plenty of evidence around him to be able to tell.

"I… Haven't had the time."

"D'you think I plan on ratting you out to someone?"

Yaoyorozu looked at Izuku with an expression of surprise and confusion. The way he spoke was… Blunt, to say the least, and rather brazen, especially for him. But it was mixed with honesty, and understanding. Even if his question had been hyperbole.

"…I worked through the night myself, remember?" Izuku sighed, before taking a seat. He sat himself on the edge of the roof, so he could look over Yuuei, and the surroundings that came with it. "Did you honestly think I was going to give you grief over it?"

"…I suppose you wouldn't."

"You've put in a lot to this. Even after it got built up, you're still here, working hard. You stuck around longer than I thought you would."

"Did… You think I would leave once the building was constructed?"

"I don't know. Part of me thought so. You helped get this place off the drawing board in the first place, I couldn't complain if you decided that you'd done enough."

"…I don't think anything I can do will be enough."

Another sigh escaped from the Quirk Inheritor. "Trust me. I understand that feeling."

This time, Yaoyorozu sighed. "…It doesn't go away. Does it?"

"…No."

He wouldn't lie to her – He knew exactly how she felt. That feeling, that no matter how much good a person could do, they would always feel that there was more good that could be done. That there was more to do. More ways to redeem one's self.

Because that guilt for what they had done wrong before wasn't going to go away, because they didn't get to decide when they had been forgiven.

And even if they did… If they had the conscious to try to redeem themselves, then they weren't ever going to think that what they had done was good enough. There was no set of criteria one had of fulfil before they could be fully forgiven.

Sometimes, they just wouldn't be. Or they would be, but they'd spend the rest of their lives never knowing.

That was the great flaw in trying to do good. Of trying to find redemption. No one was keeping score. And even if they were…

It wouldn't erase the feeling.

"…I suppose I should be grateful for the honesty…"

"…How're things back in Yuuei? Have you been back to the dorms since?" He asked, trying to change the subject.

"Only once, when I needed to revise some research material. They're… Well, everyone who wasn't involved is still… Anxious. They… Actually spoke to me the last time I was there, but I think they just wanted to know what was going on more than they wanted to know how I was, and what I was doing… Kyouka still wasn't there."

"…I'm sorry."

Yaoyorozu put down her hammer, and stood up, and looked out at Yuuei along with Izuku. When he looked at her, he could see that she was fighting back the tears that had been hiding behind her eyes for the last week.

They were on the verge of escaping, and she was fighting with them with everything she had.

She didn't want to cry.

"…I ruined it for good with her." Not a question. She wasn't looking for comfort. She didn't have a doubt in her mind. "…She told me she didn't want to go through with it. She didn't want to be involved in…. Exposing you. She just… Wanted to have a peaceful time here. She didn't want to have to worry about… Everything else. She…"

The raven-haired girl gulped.

"…She wasn't as lucky as I was."

"This doesn't… Seem like something you should tell me." Izuku told her, shaking his head. "That sounds like her business."

"Y… Yes, you're…. You're right."

A pause.

"…You were right about many things. About your Quirk. About Kirishima… About… How hypocritical it all was… And… Well, I can't say that you were right about wanting to help people who had Quirks. There wasn't… We were the ones who accused you of lying, when you… Weren't."

"…It's not like I didn't understand why you accused me of it."

"I should have listened to Kyouka… I should have… B-But I pushed her… Because I thought it… It would make things safer for us, but… I made… This…" Another pause. "…I ended up making this mess myself…. I don't get to relax. I don't…"

Her hand came up to her face. She covered her mouth , and tried to cover her eyes at the same time, trying to cover up both the sights and the noises she was making.

She failed. At both hiding behind her hands. And at not crying.

Izuku didn't offer her comfort. It would only make her feel worse – The person who she had ruined everything trying to get at, telling her that everything was going to be okay? It'd devastate her further, that someone she had targeted, hated, and gone against… Was now telling her that everything was okay, that she didn't have to worry, and that everything would work out.

She needed to let those feelings out.

She needed to grow from them.

She needed…

…Izuku looked at her. Tears were running down her hands and falling onto the surface beneath her. Muffled sobs that had been trapped for days were absorbed by her hands, desperately trying to force them back past her lips and down her throat. Her eyes were wide open as she looked at the Yuuei building, and her surroundings.

Practically her whole world, for all the freedom she had. Everything that she had done to herself…

And this was her life now. This was where she would be trapped for the next three years.

…She needed to hear the words 'Thank you'.

Not from him. Not for the building. This was a moral obligation to her. It wasn't something she felt she deserved praise for.

She needed to feel… Like she was doing something that mattered..

…

Was Yaoyorozu a bad person? No. She had made mistakes, and listened to people who were making just as many mistakes. Was what she had done wrong? Absolutely. But it wasn't like Izuku was free of guilt himself either.

Was she trying to fix what she had done? Her surroundings spoke for themselves.

…Was this an idea that would backfire?

Very possibly…. But nothing Izuku had done for the past few years had been risk free.

He waited until she had composed herself. Until she had managed to suppress most of her sobs and tears.

"…I want you to meet me on the fifth floor. And make sure no one sees you. If they do, just tell them you're doing something to check… Something. Just make sure no one follows you."

"Wh – What for?" Yaoyorozu asked, understandably confused.

The user of One For All used his power to push himself off the roof, and land safely below.

As he fell, he said to her, "There's someone I want you to meet."

* * *

 **This is a bit late and I do want to apologize for that – Uni work, and getting sick, has really been a pain on my ability to write. Managed to get this chapter out, though it is a bit more of a set-up chapter more than anything – A connector to the next few plot points I'm going to go over. Next chapter will be… Interesting. As will the next few.**

 **A friend of mine on FF. Net is making an Izumina fic with a Victorian setting that I've helped them develop a bit – Class Divide. If you guys are interested in more Izumina stuff, that's something that you could look into**

 **I don't really have a ton else to say on the end of this one – I hope that you guys enjoyed it though, and I'm sorry this took a while to get out. I'll see you all in whatever it is that comes next – See ya!**


	33. Plus One

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…You know I can't protect you like I used to be able to."

"…I know."

"…It might have helped if you had told me that this was your plan."

"…I'm sorry."

"…You'd do it all again though, wouldn't you?"

"…Yes sir."

Toshinori sighed, and leaned back in his seat. Izuku was a very special kind of person. One of the rare kinds of people that came around maybe once a generation. Someone with conviction, born into a world that needed it, and the passion and drive to do what needed to be done. Someone not afraid to take risks. Someone who was always scared that their efforts wouldn't be enough, but worked though that fear, just to keep on trying.

Being fearless meant that arrogance was an easy trap to fall into. Being overconfident was the slope that lead to arrogance. No, Izuku was smart enough to be scared. Not necessarily for himself, but for those who he was trying to help. He had taken on the same burden that they had been born with, and accepted a Quirk. He came to Yuuei of his own volition. He was doing everything in his power to stand with the people he cared about. He believed in the cause he was fighting for, and he was smart enough to fear failing. Because he knew what would happen if he did.

When he first met this boy, Toshinori found a child who had idealism. He knew all about the previous endeavours of Human history, about all the suffering, pain, and prejudice that mankind had inflicted on its own groups just for being different. And he watched this happen all over again, but did it with a smile, confident that not only could man overcome this, but that they could do it faster than before. That for all the centuries other groups had faced oppression, Humanity had progressed enough that if they worked hard, they could overcome this period in prejudice in decades. Maybe even just a few years.

Really, all they needed was something to rally behind. And loud enough voices. Be it everywhere. On the internet, in the streets, in person, to a large group, or one-on one. If they worked at it, they could overcome it.

And Izuku was doing his best to overcome it in enormous ways.

Heroism first, and now an entire orphanage. He had to give the boy credit – He was thinking up things that Toshinori hadn't considered before, though in the older mans case, he hadn't considered them simply due to how unfeasible they were, and how dangerous things could be if he engaged in them in a direct manner. He had spent much of his life trying to gain prestige and what little power he could so that he could help people from the top-down. To do things like Izuku had done, in the way Izuku had done, could risk all of it.

In a sense, that was why Toshinori liked Izuku. He was capable of doing those things without risking his mentors' position.

…When it was put like that, it almost sounded mercenary, but Izuku understood what he meant. To lose his position of power now could mean hundreds of Quirked students would find themselves at the mercy of a cruel overseer if the Quirkless saw it pertinent to do so. And it meant he had at least a small voice in local policy. He was where he was of the most use.

Just like his student was.

"I'd be disappointed if you wouldn't." He said, letting himself smile at his protégé. "I am proud of you, my boy. I truly am…"

Izuku blushed slightly, and a dopey smile made its way onto his lips. "Th-Thanks…"

"… But that doesn't mean that I can help you. Not without risking Yuuei. At least, not right away."

"I – I know. I remember. You can't do anything for another month or so."

Currently, local policy was dealing with an issue surrounding the many Quirked individuals who weren't within Yuuei's walls. Some were of the right age to be in there, but there were plenty of middle-aged adults, homeless children, and utter nutjobs who refused to turn themselves into the proper places. Right now, there needed to be a solution discovered. And of course, the ongoing Hero debate. If Toshinori tried to change the topic of debate right now, it would be easy for other politicians to accuse him of immense bias, and make his life much more difficult.

As it turned out, the Quirkless had learned about the Orphanage. They were watching it like a group of vultures, but they were leaving it be for the time being. There were other issues that needed to be addressed. And this could be part of some strategy. Toshinori didn't know what to expect. That was why he had to tread carefully.

"…Do you think Yuuei will be able to claim land rights?" Izuku asked, a small glimmer of hope in his voice. If Yuuei claimed ownership rights, then that meant that the orphanage was under Yuuei's jurisdiction. And that meant that it was protected by law – At least, for now. "It is right next to the school, after all…"

"We can certainly hope, my boy. But don't worry. I'll do everything in my power to make it so." There were certain diplomatic channels that the Headmaster would be able to go through that might grant him additional land for Yuuei to develop. It really depended on how things proceeded and how vital Yuuei was seen as. There would have to be some kind of plan. In the meanwhile, Toshinori changed the subject. "How is young Eri settling into the Orphanage?"

"I only saw her a little bit today." Izuku admitted, letting himself smile slightly. "But she seems to be doing a lot better. She's kind of shy around the other kids, but she'll break out of her shell eventually, right?"

"I'm sure she will. And now she's back with her legal guardians…" Toshinori sighed again. They were lucky no one had reported Eri missing. Otherwise things could have ended horrendously. "…You really need to get better at logistical planning, my boy. This whole arrangement certainly hasn't made things easy."

"I know, I know… But I couldn't leave her at that place. It really was that bad."

"Either way, it's done now. Best not to dwell on it I suppose… How have you been holding up?"

Izuku looked at his tutor and blinked. The question had come almost entirely out of nowhere, and so had caught him off guard a bit. He was, of course, referring to the depression, Izuku knew. There wasn't anyone who didn't know about his mental situation, Izuku suspected, in the entire school.

He gave the only kind of answer he could think to. Honesty. "I… I feel a bit better."

"…Is that all?"

"To be honest, yeah. I'm not… Quite as broken up. But that's really it."

It sounded cheap, but it really was the truth. He wasn't completely better, and he wasn't putting all things aside. He was still depressed, and while the pills had somewhat helped, the guilt and trauma over the last couple of weeks, and the thoughts he'd had weren't just going to fade away into memory. They probably never would, no matter how many pills he took. He still didn't know entirely how to cope with what had happened. That was what was difficult.

Work helped. Keeping busy and his mind off of things helped him to put those feelings aside. When he wasn't strategizing or working on improving his Quirk or any other miscellaneous tasks, he was going to make sure that he kept up to date with the exercise books Aizawa had brought for them. He was possibly the only teenager on Earth who actively missed being in classes.

He actively missed maths class. That was the state he was in.

"I see…. Would you like me to speak to the Nurse about upgrading your medication?"

"No, no. I'm fine. I just… Need time, I guess."

"You're certain?"

"As certain as I can be."

"….Very well. But make sure you go and see her if you start to feel major blues, okay?"

"Okay."

There was a brief pause. "What's next then?"

"S-Sir?"

"My boy, if I've learned one thing from you, it's that you don't stop, and you don't slow down. You have something else planned, and I have a feeling it's going to involve a lot more Quirked coming here."

Awkwardly, Izuku scratched the back of his head, and felt his cheeks warm up. "A-Am I really that predictable?"

"You are when someone knows what sort of person you really are."

The black-haired boy chose to take that as a compliment. "I… I have a few ideas. But I want to make sure that the orphanage is sorted out before I make any grand moves… I'm…. Hoping that I'll be able to help…. Negotiate something with my group."

"Negotiate?"

A nod was his reply. "It's… Well, I guess… It's something that'd have to happen eventually."

* * *

Having space to actually move around while in costume gave the whole vigilante Hero thing they had going on a completely different vibe, Mina felt.

It felt less like they were skulking around, being quiet and careful and praying to whatever cosmic entities might or might not be out there that no one saw them creeping from place to place, and now had more a sense of… Professionalism, she'd have to say. A feeling like they were actually serious about this, and now they had the space to go with it. Having space made it feel more real. Like the difference between someone with a keen interest in astronomy having everything clumped up into their room, and then finding themselves a place in an observatory, charting the stars themselves.

Maybe that was logic that only applied to Mina, because of her upbringing, if one could call it that. Her room hadn't exactly been spacious growing up. Her parents hadn't any idea that they would be brining home a Quirked child, so she had a moderately sized bedroom prepared for her before she was brought home. But it always seemed to double as a storage room for some of the most miscellaneous things. Old furniture, tools, and the likes. It left her room busy, and cramped up, and she couldn't walk from one side of the room to the other without tripping over _something_. Some things far more painful than others.

That was something she was always acutely aware of growing up. Her and her brothers' rooms were completely different. His room actually had things in it that he seemed to like, and he had the space to work and walk and do things, while her own became more and more easy to mistake as a closet.

She had toys, and things to keep her distracted of course, but she always felt guilty for it. Like she wasn't supposed to have them. It didn't take her too long to realize that she was only getting these things to keep her away from her parents, who wanted as little to do with her as possible. But she hadn't complained back then, because without any other frame of reference in her youth, she had just assumed that that was how it was.

Parents always treated their kids like this until they got older, she thought. That was just how they were, she thought. And when she got older, she thought that things would change. They didn't.

When she got her own space at Izuku's home – Limited as it was – she was suspicious. Back then, she didn't trust the Quirkless. To an extent, she still didn't. But there was something about being given a larger room that was just… Surreal to her.

Though she didn't realize it back then, she was being treated as a person of equal for the first time.

That weird, uneasy, almost queasy feeling she got in her stomach wasn't suspicion or fear. It was… Worth.

She felt like she was worth something when she had the space to walk from one side of the room to another without issue.

That… Was a strange thing, wasn't it? Without any real frame of reference, she felt like she was worth more just for having a slightly bigger room. It wasn't something she was entirely certain that she could explain. Maybe subconsciously, it just made her feel more like her brother - The clear favourite, since he was Quirkless in a Quirkless home. And somewhere deep down, she associated a large space with importance to the individual. Or maybe it was because she understood the stark differences between her and the rest of her family a lot sooner than she herself realized, and had put together exactly what had been going on without even realizing it. She'd certainly figured it out by the time she was thirteen.

When all her biases and hopes had gone to die.

If there had ever been a more…. Humbling moment in her life…

Having to bunch up in Izuku's room back in the dorms when they needed to have meetings, or change into Hero attire, or do whatever they had needed to do in secret – It had reminded her of her childhood a bit. Not having the room to turn without bumping into something, being cramped, surrounded on all sides – Granted, this time it was people she was bumping into, and not solid walls, but it gave her those similar memories. The dorm rooms weren't small, by any means. In fact, they were still fairly roomy, especially compared to what she'd grown up with. But they weren't designed for five people to be in close proximity while equipping whatever they needed in order to evade detection. It had been more bearable, since these people were her friends, and not lifeless walls.

Thanks to Monoma's architectural layout with the Cement Quirk, The First Generation now had all the space that they needed for their meetings. There was about ten-by-three square meters for the group – Enough that they'd been able to move up a planning table and pushed it against one of the far ends, turning it into a planning corner. Against the wall, all the cases containing their Hero costumes, the rest, space to just move around. It was a bit like a train cartridge, only without any of the seats or tables or other passengers involved.

It was joined up with Izuku's room, and they had been careful to make sure no one else knew about it. They had been lucky that no one had wandered into his room while he had been asleep.

Getting this room made without Monoma noticing something had certainly not been easy. As far as he knew, it was a storeroom, and nothing more. To the rest of the inhabitants of the building, it simply didn't exist – A combination of wallpaper, and strategic use of a bookshelf would assist in that. When not in use, a bookshelf that be pressed up against a wall in Izuku's room. When in use, the bookshelf would be pushed up against his front door, locking it and preventing access from the front door. As for the door leading into the meeting room itself, that was to be covered in wallpaper, to hide its existence. There would be no doorframe, not would there be a door handle. Fortunately, the door was push-to-enter, and would have a doorknob on the other side for inhabitants to pull on for exit.

Right now, out of this slightly convoluted, but mostly airtight plan, only the idea of it existed. Not even the bookshelf. Well, the doors did. Yaoyorozu and Kirishima had gone through all the floors of the building, and attached doorframes and actual doors to each of the rooms. Yaoyorozu making the needed materials, and Kirishima using his Hardened skin as a hammer, where applicable.

Except of course, their secret door. That would need to be purchased, excusing it as a spare if anyone asked. And the door to Izuku's room. He claimed to have fitted that one himself, so the latter two wouldn't learn about the secret door.

There wasn't any reason to assume that they were going to be bothered tonight. The kids had Fuyumi and Takeyama to go to if they needed anything, and thanks to a supply run by the two adults – Who weren't explicitly known to possess Quirks, or to be affiliated with Yuuei, at least, not yet – they weren't hurting for food or water. There wasn't any reason that anyone needed to approach them.

"You sure you're up to this tonight, Deku?" Uraraka questioned, giving him a concerned look.

This was to be his first outing since his depression had been revealed to the rest of the group. Understandably, they were concerned about their friend, and if he was really okay to go out when he had these emotional and mental issues. Not that anyone doubted his skill or judgement. They were just… Worried about him, personally.

Izuku certainly seemed to understand. He offered Uraraka a small smile, and then, from his pocket, he pulled out a packet of the anti-depressants that he had been prescribed. He cracked the case on one of them, and with the assistance of some liquid from his water bottle, swallowed it down. "I'll be fine." He answered simply, nodding at his brunette friend.

"You'd better be." Katsuki muttered under his breath as he fastened his mask around his eyes and upper skull.

"What was that, Kacchan?"

"I said you'd better be. I ain't dragging your ass outta the fire again if shit hits the fan."

"I'm sure if you do your job right, Bakugou, there won't be any fire for him to get caught in." Mina joked with a small smirk.

"Well, if you're so convinced that I'm gonna fuck up, you're more than welcome to take the rear-guard position instead of me tonight, Raccoon Eyes."

"Okay, you two, play nice." Izuku said with a small laugh. Since the revelation of his depression, he had seemed a lot… Lighter. The weight of having to hide his feelings had been lifted, and he was able to smile a lot more genuinely now. If that was because his medication was starting to finally kick in, or because sharing his problem had made him feel less alienated, it was difficult to say. Not that it mattered much.

What was important was that he seemed to be doing at least a bit better.

And as usual, he was right back into the fray of work.

His sheer work ethic and dedication to what he was doing was absolutely something Mina couldn't help but both despise, and admire all at the same time. Admire in the sense that he never let something keep him down for long. Despise in that something keeping him down for a bit might actually do him some good.

If there was one thing that she had learned from Izuku though, it was that if you wanted something, you had to really, really work hard for it. It wasn't just a case of wanting to help, it was also going out and actually helping. It was the difference between fighting against the injustices of society, and _fighting_ the injustices of society. In their case, they were fighting quite literally.

Nowadays, Mina struggled to imagine life without Izuku there, leading the way in the fight for their equal rights and an end to the bigotry they faced. It felt like he had always been there. Always at the front of everything. Even though that was just not true.

Maybe she felt that way because of how much better her life was these days, even if it was full of conflict and worry and fear and stress. Before meeting her friends and attending Yuuei, really, there wasn't all that much that was remarkable about her life. Hiding from abuse for being born with a Quirk, and feared and kept in a cramped room, and nearly having her horn sawed off. And then having to wander to who knew where on the road on her own, hiding from those who didn't possess the same kinds of powers that she did, for fear of violence.

Just about anything was better after that.

And there was Izuku, who had been there to help her get out of that life. Who had been with her each step of the way while in this new one. Who showed her the steps that he took, that he encouraged her to take, in the pursuit of making a better life for everyone with a Quirk.

That didn't have anything to do with her developing feelings for him, either. Even if Uraraka liked to joke that it helped. That was just fact.

Those facts… Simply helped her feelings develop faster.

Izuku slipped a glove onto his left hand, opening and closing it into a fist and outstretched to make sure that it fit, before he looked around the room. Everyone was just about ready, just fastening a few bits and pieces of their costume on, like utility belts, and helmets and masks.

"Okay…" He said, looking around at everyone. He let out a heavy sigh as he glanced from person to person, and awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "Being serious for a moment… I… Talking about my uh…" He gulped. "I know you've all been worried about me. And, I uh… I wanted to say that I'm sorry. For hiding my… Problems, from you all for so long."

Mina blinked. It wasn't something that he should be apologizing for. He didn't have any obligation to inform anyone of his condition. It was as personal as things got.

Everyone turned to look at Izuku with a similar expression – Surprise and a bit of confusion. There had been this sort of silent acknowledgement of his condition between them all, understanding and acceptance. None of them had expected him to actually talk about it. Not in a big group like this. He would speak about it to those he felt comfortable speaking about it to, and when he felt comfortable talking about it.

"That's not something you need to apologize for." Todoroki spoke up first. "I understand, at least."

Maybe Todoroki was one of the only other people there who understood the full extents of depression. Given how he had lived, and what having a Quirk had ended up causing him – Permanent disfigurement, an arrested mother, and a father who abandoned him, all on the same day, before spending years with orphans. For all the crap Mina had gone through, she had at least still had her family. Even if they were as close as lions and bacteria, they were still there, physically, for her. She hadn't felt abandoned, and when she left, it had been of her own accord, and need to escape.

Katsuki hadn't lost his family under fairly recently, relatively speaking, and even then, he'd had Izuku. And Uraraka had been the luckiest out of all of them – Her parents didn't care even slightly about her Quirk.

Todoroki didn't get that. And if that had hit him with depression of his own from a young age…. Mina didn't know, and she didn't want to guess. But he had been quick to reply. Like he completely understood. Maybe he did.

"Y – Yeah." Mina said next, feeling the need to say something. "I do too. You don't need – "

Her sentence was cut off by knocking.

Four knocks against wood in rapid succession. The emptiness of the meeting room made the sound bounce off the walls and echo, making them feel much, much heavier than they were actually supposed to be. The source had been against Izuku's front door, and had traveled all the way into the meeting room.

Everyone froze. Who on Earth was on the other side?

How were they going to get out of this? They were all in costumes!

And it wasn't like they could just pretend not to be in – There was a light source, thanks to Hatsume, and Izuku had told them he hadn't wanted to be bothered - The others knew he had to be in there!

What did they even want? What part of 'Do Not Disturb' did they not get?

They all readied themselves. Readying themselves for what, they weren't entirely certain yet. To fight, to run and hide, to get the hell out the nearest window ASAP. To knock whoever was on the other side of the door out - Whatever. Flight or fight had taken over. They readied their Quirks –

"Everyone, calm down."

Four sets of eyes landed on Izuku. Actually, looking at him right now, he didn't seem even the slightest bit alarmed.

If anything… Mina could have sworn, at the corner of his lips… There was the smallest curl upwards that she'd ever seen.

Understandably, that confused her.

Of course, Katuski retorted harshly, though now he brought his voice down to a whisper. "This doesn't exactly strike me as the time to calm the fu – "

"I said I was sorry for hiding my problems, didn't I?" Izuku repeated himself, stepping out of the meeting room, and into what was 'his' room. He paused for a moment, and brought both of his hands together behind his back. He seemed to look at the floor, before he then turned his body sideways, and his face fully back to his friends. "I… Know that what I've been going through made me act much differently to how I normally do. I put a lot of stress on everyone, without meaning to… You all had to watch out for me, even when you didn't need to. And, I'm sorry for putting you all through that. I really am."

He looked at the door, and took a step towards it.

"…This isn't me acting out because of the depression. I need you all to know that now."

His hand reached out. He untwisted the lock.

The others felt the compulsion to yell out, to run towards him and grab him, and to stop him. He was still in costume – They were still in costume! He was going to expose them!

Had he just lost his mind?!

Then the door opened. It was too late to stop anything now. As absolute quickly as they could, they pulled on their masks, threw on their hoods, or hid behind their helmets – Whatever would hide their faces, and their identities.

"Behind the frame!" Uraraka hissed quietly, jumping from view and behind the joining doorframe. Mina quickly followed, and Katsuki and Todoroki hid parallel to them.

A purely instinctive move. If Izuku wanted whoever was on the other side of the door to know they were there, he could prove where they were exceedingly easily. But in the few seconds that they had, it was all they could think to do.

None of them had any idea what was happening right now.

Nodding at the person who was on the other side, Izuku took a couple of steps back, and then gestured with his hand. "Come on in." Footsteps followed, and then a few seconds of incredibly tense silence.

"…Guys, do you wanna come out and meet our new ally?"

An ally? What the heck was an ally?

More specifically, how did they have an ally? There was next to no way to get into contact with any members of The First Generation – It wasn't like they had a phone number that people could just call up or a website, or any way for someone who was looking for them to find them, unless they walked up personally. So what did that mean?

No one really knew what to expect. A police officer who had figured out Izuku's identity and expressed sympathy? The Headmaster, whom had sussed out his students' identities? Some kind of official Izuku had… Somehow got in contact with? Weird and unlikely scenarios entered their heads, but they didn't have much else to go off of. They didn't have any idea, only their imaginations to fuel their thinking and guessing. What other choice did they have? They knew that they were there.

So one by one, they sighed, and stepped through the doorframe to greet this new 'ally'.

Not one of them guessed that it was Momo Yaoyorozu.

The tall girl stood rather meekly. She was dressed as casually as one could expect anyone to dress in – A dark crimson shirt, and a set of tracksuit bottoms, dark grey. Difficult colours to spot in the middle of the night. Her hair was down too, and the difference between her with her hair up and her hair down was rather striking. Of course, people who lived with her knew both her appearances, but at a glance, it was much harder to tell that this person was Yaoyorozu unless the person spotting knew her very well. It was almost like a disguise in of itself.

Like she didn't want anyone to know that she was here, and had made it harder to identify her.

Something was different about the way that she stood, and the way her face was expressing itself. There was awkwardness, and guilt – The last couple of weeks didn't just go away because she was helping to fix up this place.

And not a single person in a costume trusted the Creation Quirk user in even the slightest degree.

There was silence for a few seconds as Izuku poked his head out the doorframe to check for onlookers and saw none, shut the door behind him, and re-locked it. He then turned towards the other members of The First Generation, to figure out what reactions he was working with.

Considering that two of them had masks that hid their faces, he relied on body language as much as downright facial expression. He knew he was working with shock more than anything. Anger came second. Even Todoroki, whom always kept his emotions closer to heart than at the surface, had his eyes wide open, eyebrows burrowed inwards, and his jaw slightly ajar. If that was from shock, or disgust mixed with anger, no one could tell.

From Uraraka, it was more a look of concern, mixed with bits of anger and bitterness.

Mina herself, was alarmed. Her face was completely hidden, as was just about all of her skin thanks to her costume, and Izuku's gaze lingered on her the most, as he tried to figure out her body language. She was more or less completely tense and stiff, frozen in place. If he could have seen her face, he would have seen burrowed eyebrows and gritted teeth. She had questions. A lot of them.

A few moments passed, during which Yaoyorozu carefully looked at each of the four masked vigilantes in front of her. Her expression quickly turned from a rather dull one, to one of equal surprise, mirroring those of the Heroes behind their masks. Quick guilt changed to surprise, with a look in her eye that no one could really identify.

At best, it could be described as something… Positive.

"I… A part of me thought that you were making everything you said up, Midoriya." She said, finally finding her voice. It was shaky, and it sounded like she expected to lose the ability to speak at any moment. Startled didn't do her reaction justice.

To give her what little credit she deserved, she did seem as surprised to see them as they were surprised to see her. She wasn't entirely sure how she was supposed to react right now, finding herself in the presence of… Outlaws, essentially. Mina couldn't judge her reaction against anything. She didn't have the first clue what Yaoyorozu's opinion on The First Generation was.

"What, you thought I had this costume just for a joke?"

"I'm…. Not sure what I thought…" Yaoyorozu scanned the room again, looking at the frozen in place Heroes. She couldn't tell who any of them were – Thankfully, their masks worked a treat, even when some of them had recognizable features on display, like Katsuki's spiky blond hair. Plus, even if she was able to put two and two together, she was too surprised to use any sort of basic logic. "You're… All the H-Heroes the news has been talking about…" One by once, she looked at each of them. "Infinity Girl… Alien Queen… Freezerburn… Blitzkreig…" She turned towards Izuku, and blinked, hard. "…Maverick…" For the final name, her voice was quieter. Much, much quieter.

Izuku couldn't stop himself from smirking, and looking to the ground in slight embarrassment. He looked like a young celebrity being cornered by a fan for the first time. In a certain sense, that was what he was.

Mina turned to look at Uraraka. Neither of them could see one another's facial expressions, but body language worked just fine. Both were unsure of what to do, terrified of speaking and giving away who they were. Both of them knew Izuku well. Uraraka the longest, and Mina the closest. Neither one of them could understand his logic here though.

Or why on Earth he thought this was a good idea.

And what the hell did he mean when he called her an 'ally'?!

"…What'd you tell her?" Todoroki was the first one to speak. He made his voice a lot deeper than usual, to hide his identity.

"Only who I am." Izuku explained. "And that, well…. We're meeting here from now on. I invited her up her earlier to…" A pause. "She doesn't know who any of you are, if that's what you're worried about."

"I'll tell you what I'm worried about."

Heads turned towards Katsuki. There was a shake in his voice, and it wasn't just because he was trying to hide it. His head was tilted downwards, so his hair covered most of his eyes. His irises were hidden, showing only the whites of his sclera.

"What I'm worried about…"

Then he looked up. And yelled.

"Is what the _**FUCK**_ _that thing_ is doing here!"

Yaoyorozu recoiled, and took a step back, her hands rising up like she meant to shield herself from the yelling. Izuku recoiled as well, feeling a shiver.

Even for Katsuki, it was harsh language. His words spoke volumes as to how he thought about Yaoyorozu, and just about everyone else who had been involved in the plot to attack his friend. Viciousness, anger, hatred – That had all been expected.

If his eyes weren't naturally red, Izuku somehow had the feeling they somehow would have turned red out of sheer anger and hate.

Really, it was his use of the word 'It' that made Izuku feel a shiver up his spine. Even towards the Quirkless, he didn't go that far, but it said just about everything that needed to be said when it came to Kirishima's group. He didn't trust them, even if they had helped. He didn't like them.

He didn't even consider them people at this point.

The ultimate dehumanization.

That was how the Quirkless saw the Quirked. It was almost like he was agreeing with that assessment right now, at least in her case.

What scared Mina was that she understood Katsuki's feelings on this one a hundred percent.

"Okay, okay, just calm down a moment!" Izuku spoke loudly and firmly, standing between Yaoyorozu and Katsuki, with his hands held up like he was going to have to physically push his friend away from the tall young woman behind him.

"I'll calm down when you explain what the _fucking hell_ is going on here!" The Explosion Quirk user wasn't even making the effort to disguise his voice at this point. It would be a miracle if people didn't hear him down on the first floor. "You didn't say a Goddamn word about this, and then you bring _that_ here!?"

"I-I think this was a bad idea." Compared to Katsuki, Yaoyorozu's voice was too quiet to even be called a whisper. She took a step backwards. "M-Maybe I should – "

"Hold on, Yaoyorozu. You don't have to go anywhere." Izuku said, calmly. He looked between each of his friends, before meeting Katsuki square in the eye. "Yaoyorozu is here because I asked her to be here. I asked her to be here because I've spoken to her. And I actually trust her."

Everyone glanced at everyone else for a moment, before settling their eyes back on Izuku…

…It was hard to not look at him, knowing what they knew, and not think that he was making one of the worst judgement calls ever.

"You… Trust her?" Uraraka narrowed her eyes as she asked. Her disbelief was evident with her body language and her tone.

Izuku just nodded. "She'd been working harder than anyone from what I've seen, and I've… Been impressed. We've talked a bit…"

A pause.

"…I want her to work with us." He revealed. "In The First Generation. I want to add her into our group. Involve her in what we're doing here."

Definitely not what anyone in the room had expected to hear.

"You want her to what?!" Katsuki erupted.

"Work with us?!"

"Her?!"

"What's that even mean?!"

"Is that wise?" Todoroki asked. "Based on what you've _told us_ …"

The special emphasis on those particular words was intentional, meant to try to further disassociate the group from Yuuei. None of them knew how this was going to go, and none of them wanted Yaoyorozu to know their names in case whatever this was fell apart. In a single sentence, Todoroki had laid the foundation to help that disassociation.

Katsuki wasn't as tactful in his wording though. "And you didn't think to fucking mention this before bringing her here because?"

"Because you would have said no. Without question. You wouldn't have even let me explain myself, or taken the idea seriously."

"You're damn right I fucking wouldn't! Am I the only one who remembers her pulling her shit?! Did you knock your head and fucking forget the crap that – "

"Of course I haven't forgotten!"

Izuku snapped. And when he snapped, everyone suddenly felt their mouths shut, almost on command.

"…You seriously think I'd forget… _That_ , just like that?" The Quirk inheritor asked, this time a lot quieter. "I ended up in the nurse's office for an entire day, of course I remember – Of course I'm still angry!" Memories of that incident were still fresh in his mind. Everything that happened, everything that it represented to him. He hadn't forgotten any of it. To even insinuate that he had infuriated him. Angered him.

Anger that he released with a large sigh, and a glance back at Yaoyorozu.

"….But… Keeping a grudge against someone who's seriously trying to make up for what they've done isn't going to get anyone anywhere." He turned back to Katsuki. "And Yaoyorozu is trying to make up for what she took part in. And I'm not going to hold a grudge against her for it anymore."

….There was something about that statement that made Mina pause.

Izuku wasn't forgiving her. Not exactly. Yaoyorozu seemed to recognize that as well. He was still angry, and very justly so. Anyone who wouldn't be angry after going through all that he had been forced to go through would be… She couldn't even think of the words to describe such a person. They'd be far beyond being a saint at that point. Not only was the anger just – It was completely Human. Healthy, even.

To not be angry would to be a doormat for other. It would mean to have no self-respect. To have no dignity in one's self…

…Yet Izuku was putting that aside.

In spite of his just anger, in spite of how no one would judge him or blame him for lashing out verbally or violently… He was choosing not to do so.

Letting Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, and their group help with the Orphanage, that had been more out of necessity than anything else. That wasn't much of a choice when it came right down to it – It was something that they needed if they wanted to have a prayer of getting the place done on time. This was different.

He didn't have to bring Yaoyorozu here. He didn't need to clue her in. Frankly, now that the building was done, the moment that everything was moved in – Doors, furniture, furnishings, and the likes, he didn't need to ever speak to them again if he didn't want to. He could throw them out and slam the door in their faces and there would be nothing they could do, and no one from Yuuei would be able to hold it against him. But he refused to do that.

For reasons still unknown to them, Izuku was putting his anger aside to work with them. He was making the effort in spite of whatever his own personal feelings were, because he believed that this would be the right thing to do.

"That sounds fucking lovely, but I don't see any Goddamn evidence they're doing anything except trying to ease a guilty conscious." Katsuki retorting, snarling towards Yaoyorozu. In situations like this, he was always more emotional than he was logical.

But he certainly wasn't wrong. There wasn't any denying that Yaoyorozu felt terrible for her part in the event – It didn't make her less guilty, but she did have the decency to feel bad about it at least. And her help was appreciated, yet to Mina, it seemed like she was working to make herself feel better. Like somehow, helping bring the Orphanage to life would redeem her in the eyes of the universe, when in reality it took much more than that.

At least, that was how it looked from an outside perspec –

"Yaoyorozu is the one who supplied all the building materials for this place."

Thoughts, and any sort of noise, stopped instantly with that reveal.

"M-Midoriya!" Yaoyorozu reacted immediately, as caught off guard as everyone else. "Y-You said you wouldn't – " She clamped her hands around her mouth quickly, realizing what she was saying.

"Her Quirk lets her create things by converting fat into new cells. That's how we got all the massive, expensive, heavy materials here exactly when we needed them" Izuku explained. There was a firmness in his voice. He was laying down the facts of the matter as bluntly as he could, like he'd been wanting to say this for the longest time.

"Y-you said you wouldn't tell anyone…"

"I don't think they'd take this seriously unless I told them."

Everyone had their own theories about how the materials had made their way to Yuuei. Where it came from was such a mystery that it was impossible not to talk about it. People wanted to know where it all came from, why it was here, and how they knew that it was all needed. But there hadn't been any reasonable answers. There hadn't even been any passable answers, so people just had to come to their own conclusions. Their own theories on where everything had come from.

And now, they were being told that it all came from Yaoyorozu's Creation Quirk?

"What?!" Uraraka's response came first. "How the – She made all of this?"

"All the materials, yes."

"You said her Quirk converts her fat into new material – There's literally tons of stuff here! Tons! How the hell did she get the fat to convert all of this?!"

"U-Uh… My… My Quirk doesn't have a one-to-one exact conversion rate." Yaoyorozu explained her Quirks functions carefully, trying to avoid stepping on a verbal landmine. "I can create a lot of things from just a bit of fat… And I've trained my Quirk a lot – I… Thought that it would be a good Idea. In case I…. Got in trouble." She paused, and when she realized no one was going to say anything, she carried on. "I learned how to make more from less… And I, uh… Made sure I had plenty of fat to work with. Whenever I got low on fat, I made sure to make more."

"Even when it made you sick." Izuku's face scrunched up, and he shook his head. "That… Wasn't all that pleasant."

"Indeed…"

"The point is, Yaoyorozu's worked hard. She's been trying to make up for what happened from day one, and she'd gone well beyond what anyone could reasonably ask of her…. And I'm not prepared to keep treating her like a monster when she's doing the right thing. I don't want to be that kind of person. If we treat her like that, then what does that say about how we'll treat the Quirkless once we get equal standing for us? What does that say about Heroism?... It'd mean we're going to repeat the same mistakes over again. And I don't want to do that." Izuku let out a sigh. "….Look. If you guys don't want to work with her, then fine. I'll work with her on my own. I'll keep her away from you guys. She doesn't know who any of you are... But I see it like this. We can learn from this. We could get someone who has an incredibly useful Quirk. We could have a friend instead of an enemy. Prove we're the good guys…. Be better… When've we ever been in a position to turn away help, anyway?"

He wanted to be the bigger person. The better person. True to his nature, he wanted to help. Help Yaoyorozu alleviate her guilt, and help them see that they didn't have to hold grudges against their enemies like this. That moving forward didn't have to mean that they forgot, or that they forgave, but that they worked together afterwards. That they didn't let that be what defined them.

Forgiveness could be earned. Forged through working together. Trusting one another – Or at least learning to.

"…I…. Really admire all of you."

The Creation Quirk user put on a soft, hesitant smile as she looked at the Heroes in front of her. To hear that they held her admiration, given what happened was… A bizarre experience, to say the very least.

"I… I've watched you on the news ever since you first appeared. And I… I was really fortunate." She said quietly, glancing at the floor beneath her feet. "My parent's didn't disown me because of my powers… I got to grow up without being subject to prejudice or discrimination… But when I received my letter of attendance for Yuuei, I… I realized that I was going to have to deal with those things… And…" She shivered. "…That terrified me."

Not an unreasonable reaction, Mina thought. None of this was new to her, but she couldn't stop Yaoyorozu without revealing they already knew one another, and she didn't quite know where she stood with that idea yet.

"I heard stories… So… Many stories about… Horrible… Horrible things being done to people who were born with Quirks. And I… I didn't want to end up like that… I was afraid of people who didn't have Quirks…" She looked up. "…But… You weren't. You… You use your Quirks to help people. You help Quirked against the Quirkless, and protect them…. And you help the Quirkless against the Quirked… I… In a way… Doing what I did to Midoriya, I… Almost felt like I was doing the same thing. I thought I was protecting people… Even if I was wrong in the end…. And I was wrong… I… I just… I wanted to… I want to do the right thing now… You've…. Told them about what happened, I'm guessing, Midoriya?"

"Uh... Kind of?"

"…I understand if you don't want to work with me. I don't think I'd want to work with me either…But I… I just…. In case you don't want to, I would… Like to say something I don't know if you hear a lot, since you, you know… Run off before the police get there…" She took a deep breath. "…Thank you for… Helping people. And proving we're not monsters…"

Mina didn't know what to think. Yaoyorozu's words were genuine and sincere, there wasn't any doubt about that. Maybe her intentions were too, but she didn't know. She still held onto that anger, and she didn't think that letting it go was going to be an easy matter. And she didn't like the idea of working with Yaoyorozu if she were honest.

She did trust Izuku though. And wanted to believe in him now. He hadn't steered her wrong before. And she felt like she owed him that trust. She owed him her faith…

So she nodded.

Uraraka nodded after her, perhaps going through the same thought process that she had done. Maybe it was dumb. Maybe it was a bad idea, and maybe it was dangerous. But this was Izuku. It was a risk worth taking.

Todoroki didn't make any movements at all. Perhaps because he honestly didn't have an opinion on the subject. Maybe he was neutral, and didn't want his name on this if it went south. But he didn't oppose it either, and Izuku seemed to count that as a vote in his favour.

The only one who still seemed opposed was Katsuki. The fierce glare still on his face. His anger wasn't so easy to subside. Even if he was out-voted, he wouldn't back down.

"….Or you can think of it like this." Izuku muttered as he stepped next to his friend. "She knows I'm in The First Generation now, and that you guys are based here. So, we can either not involve her and risk her running off and telling the police, or we let her work with us, and that way, she's in as deep as we are."

Katsuki shot a look at Izuku like he was about two seconds away from punching his jaw in, but he couldn't argue with that logic, really. Even if he wasn't already outvoted, and Izuku went off with Yaoyorozu and worked with her in-between Hero Patrols and whatever else they did, it meant that she could run off if she wanted and could easily rat him out without being groups in with the rest. At least if she was doing work with them, in some capacity, she was in just as bad, and if she went to rat them out, she'd be at risk of getting thrown in a prison cell herself.

So the options were to either work with someone he hated with a passion, or risk them running off and causing irreparable damage. Izuku had used his own suspicious nature against him.

He growled, and undid his mask. There wasn't any point in hiding his identity if he had to work with this bitch now.

* * *

 **So, Yaoyorozu is the first new addition to the team – What will her role be, and what will her inclusion mean for the factions at the school?**

 **Getting this chapter to a point I was happy with it was really difficult, but I'm glad that I managed to get this done – It's been a while since I published something. Been a while since I sat down to properly write as well – But since I've got a month off for Christmas Break from Uni, I'll hopefully be getting back into the normal groove!**

 **If you'd like to support me and the content I do, I have both a Ko – Fi and a Pat Reon under the name QuirkQuartz that you can donate to me at – While not required, it is highly, highly appreciated, and helps me out an absolute ton. I'm sorry I haven't been around a lot, but I'm hoping to change that for at least until mid January.**

 **Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you next time – See ya!**


	34. Doubt and Pride

"If you weren't comfortable with it, why'd you take off your mask and show her who you were?"

"What exactly was I supposed to do? Hope she wouldn't put it together herself?"

"Well in fairness, you did kind of give her all the pieces she'd need."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"The yelling, the swearing, the threats, calling her an 'it.' I dunno if you could've screamed 'Bakugou' more if you blew up half the building. That parts on you."

"Oh, fuck off."

Uraraka grinned and folded her arms, proud of her seamless jab at Katsuki. "I'm not wrong though, am I?"

Katsuki just growled, and that was his entire response. It was pretty much as close to admitting that she was right that he was willing to permit himself to grant. Were he in a better mood, he probably would have just nodded his head and said nothing more of it.

Yesterday had been an… Interesting day for everyone. Yaoyorozu's… For lack of a better word, casual admittance into The First Generation was quite the event, even when the effort was made to try to make it as seamless as possible. It had just been the five of them for months, and now, someone else was getting dragged into the group?

Expansion had been unavoidable for some time. Pretty much all of them had known that. Five people could start the change, and make a difference. But more than five people working towards that change would help. And it could have immense benefits, as well as all the risks that came with it. To pretty much everyone, it seemed unavoidable that a day would come in which they saw new faces added among those who believed strongly in Heroism.

Really, the only source of conflict that came up between them in regard to the topic, was how those new recruits would be added into the fields of Heroism. Katsuki had thought that if they caused enough noise, eventually people would start to believe in their ability to fight back. Todoroki had a similar belief, in that as they continued, people who were inspired by The First Generation may decide that they wanted to help in their mission, and become Heroes of their own right.

Suggesting something a bit more involved, Uraraka had proposed that there had to be people around who supported the Heroes, and wanted to do something to help them. And maybe if they found those people, they could recruit and train them. It was a more direct approach towards expanding their group, and it came with the most risks, such as how easy it would be for their identities to be leaked if anyone ever found out who they were. The risk of them being infiltrated by either the police, someone being paid by anti-Quirked groups, or just plain lunatics was large. Plus, if they recruited a more extreme individual, then that would reflect on them. At least if someone chose Heroism of their own accord, and began to act up no better than someone who had no control over their powers, or was just lashing out, The First Generation could condemn then, or even stop them with force if need be.

At the same time, there were rewards to be found with this system. With this set-up, it increased the direct influence they could have on the local area – a network of Heroes all working towards a common goal, under one united banner. It increased their chances of meeting with new people that they could exchange ideas with, and a broader pallet of ideas surely couldn't hurt. And with more people in the network willingly, it could lead to an easy exchange of information, new resources – Like hideouts around the city – contacts, and tips about what areas and what peoples needed to be helped. That sort of thing.

Of course, that was all just how it played out in Uraraka's head, but there was at least the chance for it. Her optimism had actually managed to persuade Mina to her way of thinking.

And apparently, it had also persuaded Izuku too.

Izuku though…. Uraraka couldn't find herself able to agree with him fully. Not with how he'd gone about doing this.

"There was another reason." Katsuki muttered.

"Hm?" Uraraka tilted her head. "What's that?"

"Better that she knows Blitzkrieg of all people is always around her. With any luck it'll make her think twice before trying to screw us over."

A chuckle made its way from Uraraka's lips. "I don't know how many guys could say they're keeping an eye on some girl for an excuse to beat them up and still try to sound like a Hero."

"Screw that. She's capable of fucking us all over and you know it as well as I do." A pause. "Anyone of that shitty-hairs team could screw us over if they knew who we were, or we let out guard down around them for a second, guy, girl, intermediary or fucking otherwise."

"You won't get an argument from be, Kat-go."

Katsuki blinked, and one of his eyebrows burrowed into his eye. "Fuckin' Kat-go now? That's the worst one yet. How many of these Goddamn nicknames are you gonna try on me?"

"As many as it takes until you accept one."

"We'll be in fuckin Alpha Centauri by the time I let you use that one." He huffed. Hidden behind that faux anger, Uraraka could see the smallest of smiles.

It was about what she expected to see. This was how Uraraka had taken to dealing with Katuski when he needed to blow of steam. Ranting about an issue would just make him angrier and angrier the more he thought about it, so she took to small jabs and diversions to try to distract him a bit. They went back and forth a bit, and it generally seemed to improve his mood.

She didn't know when they started doing it like this. It just sort of happened, and she was pretty sure that Katsuki was aware that they were doing it too, and he just rolled with it.

Their dynamic was an odd one, and that really was only compounded by Uraraka's interest in him. For all the fury and anger and resentment he made no effort to hide, he was capable of growing beyond it. Of putting it aside, and doing the right thing. Of doing the moral thing, even when he couldn't act like less of a decent person to most outsiders. He was weird – Caught perfectly between righteous anger and a desire to actively tear down the established norms of their divided society, and the activist who fought for reformation and change by example. And he balanced both of them to the best of his ability, even when he struggled.

He was loyal, and underneath the mask of heathen, was the heart of a knight.

But he wasn't blind in his loyalty, either.

"…Level with me though." He said suddenly, and quietly, looking up at her with an expression that bordered between that same anger, and forced calm. "You're not happy about Deku pulling this, are you?"

She paused, blinked, and then answered. "…I have faith in his judgement. I don't think he'd do something like that unless He was certain beyond all measure that we could trust Yaoyorozu."

"…But?"

This time, she sighed. If there was one thing that she'd give Katsuki, it was that he was surprisingly good at reading people. That, or her attempts to hide her actual feelings on the matter hadn't worked out.

"…I don't like it." She admitted. "I don't like that he didn't mention anything to us. That he didn't even check to see if we were okay with the idea. I guess he knew we'd all accepted it as an inevitability at some point, but that doesn't make it right. It…" She leaned back, and found herself laying on her mattress before she carried on. "…It feels like he's just deciding things for us. And I mean, that makes sense when it comes to planning – He's good at that. But this…"

Articulating what and why she felt like this wasn't exactly an easy matter. She was conflicted, because until now, Izuku hadn't led them wrong once. He'd made mistakes and things hadn't gone perfectly, but he never made blunders like this. He didn't make executive decisions like this, not when he had the time to think about the potential ramifications, or at least speak to his team.

More than anything, that was what had Uraraka thrown for a loop. The fact he just hadn't said anything. Because he believed that they wouldn't have considered it in the slightest?

Maybe he was right… No, he probably was. But that still didn't make it right. He couldn't just roll over majority opinion, and ignore the concerns of his teammates like that.

"…You've been working with him for years, and I've been in touch with you guys for at least one. Todoroki's been with you for how long? A year and a half? And Ashido… Well, you know what those two are like."

"If they're gonna fuck, I wish they'd just get the hell on with it."

"Hah!" Uraraka couldn't stop herself letting out a singular, loud laugh. "At least I'm not the only one who's noticed it!"

"You'd have to be blind not to."

"Haha… Anyway… You'd think with all those people, he'd think to talk to…. One of us first. Or at least ask us what we think, or… Something."

"Y'know what pisses me off the most?" Katsuki muttered, standing up and looking out the window.

From here, he could just see the tops of the orphanage peering over the wall that surrounded Yuuei. No doubt that over the next couple days, the interiors would be completely finished, at least, for the kids' floors. Izuku had been working almost round the clock with Yaoyorozu and Mina, and anyone else who would volunteer to help.

"What gets me is that I wouldn't even fuckin' mind adding more people into the group. It's inevitable if he wants to keep this up, I'm not an idiot." He growled. "It's that _he_ chose, and _he_ knew who _he_ wanted, and acted like _he_ knew best, and screw what the rest of us thought. He made it an ultimatum and there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it!" He then leaned back, so the back of his head was against the glass. "And of all the people he picked… He seriously went with one of those fuckers who tried to hammer us into leaving Yuuei. Why? He couldn't even be bothered to fully explain it to us – 'Just deal with it' Is what it came down to."

He was taking this a lot harder than he was letting on, Uraraka realized. Considering that he never really held anything back, the fact he was able to hide just how much that this whole incident had bothered him was honestly impressive. Granted, Katsuki was never great when it came to expressing his feelings. But he never held back when he was angry either. So the fact he was only now managing to express the full extent of his distain was….

How couldn't the feel betrayed?

"We could always just ask him."

"I don't know if there's a single answer out there that's good enough."

"Maybe not… But at least it'll be an answer." Uraraka said, shrugging her shoulders, admittedly not a hundred-percent sure herself. "Besides… If we say something now, maybe it'll help set some kind of precedent in case we need to add anyone else, so it doesn't happen like this again. It's gotta be better than doing nothing, at the very least."

Katsuki just looked at Uraraka, a certain amount of calm surprisingly in his expression. As per usual, she made good point, even if they were somewhat obvious to someone who wasn't supremely pissed off like he was.

"…Right."

* * *

Izuku took a step back, and assessed the layout of the room. Two bed-frames had been moved in, a mattress apiece brought and put atop them, a wardrobe in the corner at the foot of said bed-frames, and a desk to the sides. Wood-styled floor coatings had been laid down, so the hard-concrete underneath wouldn't cause discomfort or pain or cold, and made the room look, well, nice.

The walls had been coloured white. It was a plain colour, no one would really complain about it, and it meant that the rooms weren't too personalized that they couldn't reshuffle rooms around as new people were needed to fill them up. There was a bookshelf just above the desk as well. They mirrored the Yuuei dorms as closely as possible. They weren't exactly luxury apartments, and they weren't super personalized…

But they were rooms. Rooms of a livable standard. And they were able to start moving the kids into them.

It had taken them a few days, but thanks to people working together, hard, and as quickly as possible around the clock, they had managed to do up nearly enough rooms. Each room would take two people for the sake of saving space. Before, Izuku had mentioned making each room a one-person thing, but he had now decided against it – There were more people who needed help than he realized. They needed to make the most out of their space, until they could perhaps find an alternative solution. Thankfully, none of the kids seemed to mind. They were just happy to have a place that didn't look like a complete dumpster fire.

Two or three more rooms after this, and they would finally have enough space to give every child in the building a room. They had their Quirks to thank for being able to get so much done in just a few days – Their own Quirks, and the Quirks of the kids when applicable.

If they were lucky, maybe they'd be able to sort out all the needed rooms today.

"I think this one looks about done." Izuku said to no one in particular, going a sweep over the room once more, just to double check everything.

"It looks good."

Looking over his shoulder, Mina gave her opinion on the now finished room. Over the course of her life, she had gone between phases of liking having her powers, and despising the fact that Quirks had ever come to exist. Just a few months ago, she was angry at them for preventing her from even being able to just live in the shadows of society alone.

That was before she met Izuku and his group though, and they showed her what Quirks could be used for. And this was yet another thing in the ever-growing line of things that Quirks turned out to be exceptionally great at that she would have never thought possible. It was just about finding out what you could do with your power, and putting in a little hard work. And everyone had been putting in the hard work lately. Especially today.

And the results certainly showed.

"Never thought I'd say this, but having Kirishima and Yaoyorozu around actually isn't that bad." She muttered, begrudgingly. "At least for helping us sort out these rooms."

Izuku glanced behind him and at the pink girl. He noticed the pair of mugs she held, one in each hand. As soon as he spotted them, Mina offered him the one with the comics theme, a series of panels and superheroes covering the outside of the mug. He took it without a word, and took a sip of the hot liquid inside. Coffee, extra strong, extra sweet. He let out a long exhale after swallowing a mouthful, and smiled at the pink girl. "Thanks."

"No worries. I kinda guessed you'd need a pick-me-up."

"How's the room they're working on coming? Did you take a look?"

"They look like they're about halfway done." Mina told him, taking a sip of her own mug. She shivered as the warmth hit her insides. "They've got that kid with the Clean-Cut Quirk helping them lay down the flooring, and the other one who can change the colour of stuff."

"Katto and Iryika."

"That's their names." Mina nodded, snapping the fingers on her free hand. "Yeah, they're helping them out."

"I'm just glad that the kids are okay with two to a room." Izuku admitted. "We might actually have this all wrapped up by tonight. Tomorrow at the latest if we keep things up at this rate."

This entire operation had lasted a long time, but the end result was finally in sight. Once all the kids had been moved into their rooms, that wouldn't mean an end to the construction work on the rooms yet. They would still have about half the rooms to fill up in case they found anyone out in the cities who would need a place to stay, and Izuku wanted to make sure that they had a decent place to stay. Completing the full process was going to take them another week or two. But the main part of the project would be complete.

Thinking about the numerous people who were going to need places to stay, Izuku found his mind wandering back to that one girl that they had saved around the same time he had had his minor breakdown, and confessed the guilt and shame he felt over killing the Nomu. Nakagame, if he remembered her name right.

Nothing had been heard from her since that incident. Izuku found himself wondering about that girl lately. Was she still hiding out in the alleyways of the city, or had she found somewhere permanent she could hide out?

Had she managed to avoid getting dragged to Yuuei against her will? Mina hadn't said anything about seeing that girl, so he doubted it. He wondered though. Was he ever going to see that girl again, or had his ways as the Vigilante Maverick made her too scared to follow his advice?

The thought of the second option made him shiver. If there was one thing that he really didn't want to be responsible for…

He shuddered, and took another sip of his coffee.

* * *

"So, we're working against a group of people who have Superhuman Strength, a corrosive liquid, thermal manipulation, some kind of combustion power, and someone who affects gravity. Well, that should narrow it down…"

The official in question slammed the papers he had been reading from onto the desk in front of him, and yelled at the same time, his voice carrying extra weight alongside the sound his hand made against the desk.

"…About every single Quirked on the damned planet!"

Toshinori let out a sigh as he listened, to what had to be the seventh time this particular official ran his mouth, criticizing the police force for not being good enough at finding more information about The First Generation. He was easily the most anti-Quirked person in the room, and he never missed an opportunity to yell about the incompetency of the people being paid to track down the new Heroes, or the Quirked in general. Present company not excluded either.

To his side, he saw Aizawa tapping his fingers against the desk absently. He was clearly irritated. Aizawa was a slow person to fully annoy. The kind of person that he was, he treated the situation as coldly and logically as possible, and rationalized away a lot of the anger he would feel at any one time. But that wasn't a perfect system, and it didn't always work.

Especially not when the source was someone so stupid, so moronic, and full of irrational hatred and sentiment.

"All the measures that can be taken have been taken by officers on the ground." The police representative, Tsukauchi, informed the official, just as weary as the Quirked in the room, if out of nothing but sheer exasperation. He was the representative because of what little communication he had had with the First Generation, and his subsequent investigation on the group at large.

"Well it evidently isn't enough." The official flatly stated. "It's been weeks since they showed up, and I've yet to see any sort of progress of any kind being made in regards to uncovering their identities!"

"There isn't more that we can do." Tsukauchi responded flatly. "Nothing that would fall into the legal framework of Japanese law."

"As if these freaks care about the law!"

"Perhaps not. But our Police Force does. We won't break the law to catch lawbreakers, and there aren't any measures further we can implement without breaking that rule."

The official almost growled. It was beyond abundantly clear that he had some kind of personal stake in the situation. Toshinori knew that he'd run for his position on the back of being anti-Quirked, but he couldn't bring himself to believe that it was sheer contempt and sheer contempt alone that was driving this much fury.

Of course, it could very well be. And that was a thought that deeply shook the Yuuei Headmaster.

Almost as if on cue, the official turned towards the two Quirked in the room. "and what guarantees do we have that Yuuei isn't behind any of this?"

Aizawa looked at the official with plain, easily spotted contempt. He neither reacted negatively nor positively – He simply stared down the official, like whoever broke first would be in the wrong, while the one who remained would be in the right.

Toshinori spoke. "Are we being accused of something?" His question had authority to it. Probably more weight that any other Quirked representative would dare to have.

The official didn't seem to back down though. He barely even seemed to look away from Aizawa. "You have hundreds of Quirked without Yuuei's walls – It would be incredibly easy for many of the students to form some kind of group to upset the peace."

"If they feel the need to upset the peace, it's because your peace doesn't give them any." Aizawa stated flatly.

It almost looked like the official was about to bellow at Aizawa, but Toshinori spoke up again. "Regardless, we've had no reason to suspect that anyone from our school is engaging in illegal activity." That was a blatant lie, but it wasn't like there was anything else he could do in the situation. "The only thing we're interested in is making sure that the children in Yuuei are capable of remaining safe, learning to control their powers, and becoming productive members of society."

"Your 'productive members of society' hopefuls are dangerous." Another member of the board said. "You treat them like they're average citizens."

"How would you propose we treat them?" Aizawa asked. "Like animals, or dangerous criminals?"

"I'd propose you treat them like the threats that they are. That is what you and every other teacher at that school was hired to do."

At that statement, Aizawa had simply had enough. He raised to his feet, and looked across the board. Cold contempt was filling his eyes to the brim, but he didn't show any outward intense emotion otherwise.

In a way, if he's been furiously yelling and screaming, or just outright attacking people with murderous intent, it would have been less terrifying.

In that scenario, at least, the people he looked at would know where he stood emotionally.

"I've had enough of this conversation." He said, simply. "Nothing rational or logical is being achieved here."

"Sit down, you!" The original official yelled. "We're not done here!"

Suddenly, Aizawa's Quirk activated.

Against Quirkless people, it did nothing. But it did make his own eyes glow red, and made his hair raise, and make him look far taller than he actually was. He spoke flatly, and plainly.

"This has happened time and time again throughout history. It happened in ancient Rome. It happened in Medieval Europe. It happened in the New World when pioneers reached the Americas. It happened when refugees came from war-zones into more stable nations. It's happened with every single minority group on the planet, without fail, at every point in history. The Quirked are just another in the long line of people who you feel threatened by."

One by one, as he spoke, Aizawa looked at each of the officials, making sure each and every one of them heard his words.

His eyes landed on the first official. "Do you honestly believe that treating these people like they're a danger fixes the problem?" He looked to the next. "Do you think that treating them like animals will endear them to you?" Then the next. "That they'll learn their place?" The next. "That they're bow to your _innate_ superiority?" Next. "There isn't a rational thought in any of your heads."

Then the official who had been running his mouth all meeting.

"None of these Quirked were going to do anything against the Quirkless because they felt superior until you told them they were dangerous freaks. Ever since the first Quirk materialized, people like you have done nothing but treat them like they're a danger to society. Before, they weren't going to be radicalized into something like vigilantism at all. Then you came and told them they weren't even worthy of being called 'People', and you dared to question when they started to fight back? Tell me, what's your logic here? What did you think would happen?"

"So you're sanctioning these freaks?!"

"I'm doing nothing of the sort. And I don't have a single clue who they are." Aizawa closed his eyes, and his scruffy hair fell in front of his face and by his shoulders. "But I certainly understand them and their frustrations. And I certainly don't blame them for doing what they're doing. And you know for a fact you would be doing the exact same thing if the situations were reversed – But then, it would be just, wouldn't it?"

For the first time, there was actually a lull of silence. Whether that was because Aizawa's point was irrefutable, or if it was because they had decided arguing with him would accomplish nothing was unclear.

It really was rare for Aizawa to speak his mind like that against the officials. In fact, to this scale, it was frankly unprecedented. Toshinori had to admit, Aizawa had said exactly what he himself had been thinking, but had been too diplomatic to say himself.

Forget that – It was rare to see him this emotional whatsoever. He was a very detached man, who could separate himself from the situation that surrounded him and replace it with cold logic. His outer self was calm, but his words spoke for someone filled to the brim with righteous indignation.

Did he know, somehow?...

For a final time, Aizawa looked at each member of the board, and then closed his eyes again. "Toshinori. Continuing this conversation with people who are this irrational is a complete waste of time. There are more productive things to do with my time. I'll return if this board decides to treat the situation with logic, instead of emotion."

The Erasure Quirk user turned around and began to leave, one of his hands shovelled into his tracksuit's pockets, and another hung lazily by his side, so that when he reached the door, he could open it without removing a hand from his pockets. Once he reached the door, he did just that.

"After that little outburst, you'll be lucky if you're invited to any future board meetings."

Once more, Aizawa turned around to face the one official who just did not seem to know when it was time to shut his mouth. He glared at him.

"Are you afraid that if I come back, I'll talk some sense into your colleagues?"

He got no response. So he left.

For about a minute after, there was nothing more than complete silence as the board considered the words Aizawa had spoken. Whether it was considering his points, quiet fury, or disbelief that someone Quirked had had the temerity to speak like that, Toshinori couldn't say. This was a board of people who were of a particular mindset in regard to the Quirked. He wasn't sure if words alone were going to convince them of anything.

Their sheer silence at what had happened seemed to tell another story though. So he couldn't be sure either way.

* * *

Izuku let out a sigh, and felt his muscles release the built-up tension. They ached from working all day. He couldn't help but like it though. It was a good ache. An ache that let him know that he'd achieved things today. That he'd done everything that he could possibly do, and that he'd pushed himself. He'd accomplished his goals today, and then surpassed them.

And the end result had been gratifying.

All the rooms were now done.

It had been a bit of a mad rush towards the end, as Izuku had found himself pushing himself alongside Mina, Kirishima and Yaoyorozu, all of them apparently as equally motivated as him to get the place sorted before the sun set. With their various Quirks, and the Quirks of those kids who had offered to help, they had somehow managed it, with sunlight to spare.

How long had they spent working on the rooms? It felt like weeks, but he didn't even know himself. Maybe it was only a week? He was tired, and it felt like a lot longer than it actually was. Regardless of how long it had it hadn't been, he felt proud. Of himself, and of his friend and workmates.

Right now, the children were moving into their new rooms. That was something Mina had offered to oversee – Having more energy left than Izuku did. He had even seen Eri today, moving in with her things. She seemed… Healthier. Happier. A bit. Less depressed and shy, at the very least. Being around other kids would be good for her, Izuku was certain.

He let out another sigh, and took another drink of water. Right now, he was tired. And he just didn't want to…. Think. About anything. Right now, he just wanted to bask in a little bit of pride. He was happy with himself and what he and his team had accomplished.

It made him think about just about what could be achieved if people worked together instead of fighting. If they put past grievances behind them. If something like that was possible, he wasn't sure. All he could do was look at the results of just that being done in front of him.

He felt like he had the right to be proud. And he was. And it felt… Good.

For the first time in quite a while. He felt… Good.

"Deku."

Looking behind him, he saw Katsuki and Uraraka looking down at him. How long the pair of them had been standing there behind him, but he had the feeling that they hadn't just gotten there. Immediately, he recognized the look on his friend's face.

There was something the Explosion Quirk user wanted to speak about.

"Kacchan?" He spoke automatically, and his head tilted. "What's wrong?"

"You and I need to talk."

There was a certain authority to how he spoke. Something about it was… Almost demanding. He was clearly upset.

After just a moment of consideration, Izuku knew why.

"E – Excuse me?"

Before either of them could say another word to one another, their attention was called to just a couple of feet away from them.

Izuku immediately recognized the person calling to them. The girl he had helped in that alleyway not long ago, when Mina had called him out on his depression. He couldn't hide the fact he was surprised to see her – By now, he had written her off as a lost cause.

Tatami Nakagame.

"I… Is this the place Maverick mentioned?"

* * *

 **Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighto, it's been a long time since I've updated FG, hasn't it, lads? Well, I'm on break from Uni, so while I still have a lot of work to do, I've got a bit more free time to just do whatever I feel like for now, so I decided to wrap up a chapter I've had on the backburner for a long while now.**

 **Tatami is a fun character. One I've been thinking up stuff to do for a while now – I'm not 100% certain how I'm gonna use her, but I've certainly got ideas and options for her.**

 **First Generation is fun, but it's certainly something I'd like to wrap up sometime soon. Preferable in 2019. I'd say we're about halfway through the story at this point, and I'm going to be having a fairly big update with a lot of stuff happening next chapter – and I think it'll be a good one.**

 **I hope ya'll enjoyed, and that I'll see you all next time in whatever it is I make next – See ya!**


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